The body is a situation shaping but never determining projects

Evidence

However, one might say, in the position I adopt—that of Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty—that if the body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and the outline for our projects. Woman is weaker than man; she has less muscular strength, fewer red blood cells, a lesser respiratory capacity; she runs less quickly, lifts less heavy weights—there is practically no sport in which she can compete with him; she cannot enter into a fight with the male. Added to that are the instability, lack of control, and fragility that have been discussed: these are facts. Her grasp of the world is thus more limited; she has less firmness and perseverance in projects that she is also less able to carry out. This means that her individual life is not as rich as man’s. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 105

Categorization

• DEFINE: Central definition of ‘situation’ as the body’s grasp on the world and outline for projects — core analytical apparatus of the book.
• XREF: This is the key move distinguishing Beauvoir’s position from Sartre’s — the body as situation rather than mere facticity. — connects to: The will can reshape details but never its originating fundamental project — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1138; An individual justifies himself only through a future-oriented project, never through present facticity; Situations are structured in dominance but never fully determined by it. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 879 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Being embodied is essential to existence, but no particular body structure is. #expands (0.88) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 80
• An individual justifies himself only through a future-oriented project, never through present facticity #expands (0.85)
• The body is a self-developable means, not passive imprint or natural expression #expands (0.85) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1210
• The body is necessary to the for-itself yet manifests its contingency #expands (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 839
• Situations are structured in dominance but never fully determined by it. #corroborates (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 879
• The For-itself can only found itself by projecting toward a future it never reaches #expands (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 453
• Culture as constitutive of practice retains contingency and is never finally determined #corroborates (0.72)