The given never conditions freedom because freedom is its internal negation

Evidence

But what is this relation to the given? Are we to understand by this that the given (the in-itself) conditions freedom? Let us look more closely. The given does not cause freedom (since it can produce only the given) nor is it the reason of freedom (since all “reason” comes into the world through freedom). Neither is it the necessary condition of freedom since we are on the level of pure contingency. Neither is it an indispensable matter on which freedom must exercise itself, for this would be to suppose that freedom exists ready-made as an Aristotelian form or as a Stoic Pneuma and that it looks for a matter to work in. The given in no way enters into the constitution of freedom since freedom is interiorized as the internal negation of the given. It is simply the pure contingency which freedom exerts by denying the given while making itself a choice; the given is the plenitude of being which freedom colors with insufficiency and with négatité by illuminating it with the light of an end which does not exist. The given is freedom itself in so far as freedom exists; and whatever it does, freedom can not escape its existence. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1160

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the precise relation between the given (in-itself) and freedom via internal negation — a core Sartrean ontological claim.
• XREF: Connects to the Sartre-Beauvoir lineage: this is the systematic backdrop for Beauvoir’s ‘Ethics of Ambiguity’ on how freedom engages facticity. — connects to: Freedom is the human capacity to put beings out of circuit behind a nothingness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 225; Nothing justifies the values a free being adopts since freedom grounds all values — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 250; Empirical freedom is a secondary nihilation that presupposes an original nothingness — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 262 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Freedom depends on overcoming negativity and constraint #contradicts (0.85) — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 147
• External negations leave beings untouched while internal negations constitute the self #expands (0.83) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 573
• Freedom arises when necessity manifests its inner identity, not by its removal #corroborates (0.82)
• Nothingness grounds negation by being itself a negation, not an empty void #corroborates (0.72) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 215