Possibility exists only as an option on being that separates one from oneself

Evidence

There is possibility when instead of being purely and simply what I am, I exist as the Right to be what I am. But this very right separates me from what I have the right to be. Property right appears only when someone contests my property, when already in some respect it is no longer mine. The tranquil enjoyment of what I possess is a pure and simple fact, not a right. Thus if possibility is to exist, human reality as itself must necessarily be something other than itself. This possible is that element of the For-itself which by nature escapes it qua For-itself. The possible is a new aspect of the nihilation of the In-itself in For-itself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 381

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The property-right analogy is a strikingly precise unpacking of how possibility structures the For-itself’s self-relation: a right over being implies a distance from it. This is the core of the entire chapter.
• XREF: Beauvoir takes this ‘option on being’ directly into The Ethics of Ambiguity as the ground of moral freedom. — connects to: Possibility arises only through a being that comprehends and embodies its own possibles. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 382; Possibility is a concrete property of already existing beings, not a subjective construct — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 378; Only a being whose being is in question for itself can have a Future (+5 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the possible as a mode of the For-itself rather than as an objective structure of beings.

Broader Connections

• Possibility arises only through a being that comprehends and embodies its own possibles. #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 382
• Possibility is a concrete property of already existing beings, not a subjective construct #contradicts (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 378
• Ethics is only possible given a gap between oneself and oneself #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 5
• Only a being whose being is in question for itself can have a Future #expands (0.80)
• The possible becomes real only through a person’s project, not as pre-existing logical possibility #expands (0.75)