The fundamental project is the for-itself’s choice of its own being-in-the-world.

Evidence

In any case it is evident following our analysis that the way in which my companion suffers his fatigue necessarily demands—if we are to understand it—that we undertake a regressive analysis which will lead us back to an initial project. … But this original relation is nothing other than the for-itself’s being-in-the-world inasmuch as this being-in-the-world is a choice—that is, we have reached the original type of nihilation by which the for-itself has to be its own nothingness. No interpretation of this can be attempted, for it would implicitly suppose the being-in-the-world of the for-itself just as all the demonstrations attempted by Euclid’s Postulate implicitly suppose the adoption of this postulate. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1107

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that the ‘original project’ is defined as the for-itself’s nihilation of facticity — chosen being-in-the-world.
• XREF: The regressive analysis toward an initial, uninterpretable project parallels Sartre’s later account of original choice in The Transcendence of the Ego and echoes how Beauvoir takes up the for-itself’s fundamental project. — connects to: Finitude is the necessary condition of the For-itself’s original project; Original projects of the for-itself are logically irreducible to any pre-existing motive.; The for-itself’s project is a concrete individual choice, not an abstract universal — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1384 (+9 more)
• QUESTION: How does the Euclidean-postulate analogy square with Sartre’s insistence that bad faith already presupposes freedom? If the fundamental project resists interpretation, what does that do to the possibility of self-knowledge?

Broader Connections

• The for-itself’s project is a concrete individual choice, not an abstract universal #expands (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1384
• The for-itself constitutes itself by choosing and projecting concrete possibles #corroborates (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1509
• The permanence of things is constituted by one’s own ongoing project. #expands (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1284
• The meaning of one’s place depends entirely on the project one chooses. #expands (0.90)
• The for-itself’s relation to its future is a project toward its own suppression #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 615
• The for-itself desires to be its own foundation without annihilating its consciousness. #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 361
• The for-itself is a relation to the world, not a separate entity #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 831
• The refusal to choose is itself a choice. #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 26
• Humanity’s defining project is self-surpassing, not mere survival #qualifies (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 153