The past is not an accretion but a necessary structural feature of the For-itself.
Evidence
We are dealing here with an unconditional necessity: whatever the For-itself under consideration may be, it is in one certain sense; it is since it can be named, since certain characteristics may be affirmed or denied concerning it. But in so far as it is For-itself, it is never what it is. What it is is behind it as the perpetual surpassed. It is precisely this surpassed facticity which we call the Past. The Past then is a necessary structure of the For-itself; for the For-itself can exist only as a nihilating surpassing, and this surpassing implies something surpassed. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 476
Categorization
- DEFINE: Establishes the Past as ‘surpassed facticity’ — the named structure of what the For-itself is not yet remains determined by.
- XREF: Directly sets up Beauvoir’s ethics: if the past is a necessary structure of the For-itself, then freedom never begins from a blank slate — the foundation for her account of ambiguity and situated freedom. — connects to: The past cannot be constructed from present elements alone — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 411; The past is a for-itself that has hardened into an in-itself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 434; The past is an in-itself whose content can neither be changed nor added to — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 427 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Temporality is an internal structure of the For-itself, not external to it
#expands(0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 485 - The for-itself is its past yet cannot posit or thematize it
#expands(0.85) - The Past is a non-thetic, lived bond with the world and self
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 481 - The future project, not chronology, organizes the layers of one’s past.
#qualifies(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1187