The self I am depends on a future self it cannot determine

Evidence

If nothing compels me to save my life, nothing prevents me from precipitating myself into the abyss. The decisive conduct will emanate from a self which I am not yet. Thus the self which I am depends on the self which I am not yet to the exact extent that the self which I am not yet does not depend on the self which I am. Vertigo appears as the apprehension of this dependence. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 239

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines vertigo as the apprehension of the dependence of present self upon a radically undetermined future self.
• DEEPTHINKING: The asymmetric dependence between present and future selves — the present depends on the future to the exact extent the future does not depend on the present — is a dense, counterintuitive formulation worth sitting with.
• XREF: connects to: A possibility’s existential weight, not its temporal proximity, determines the present For-itself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 456; The future is a prejudicative self-relation, not representation or actual potency; Only a being whose being is in question for itself can have a Future (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The For-itself can only found itself by projecting toward a future it never reaches #corroborates (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 453
• A possibility’s existential weight, not its temporal proximity, determines the present For-itself. #qualifies (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 456
• Only a being whose being is in question for itself can have a Future #corroborates (0.85)
• The future is a prejudicative self-relation, not representation or actual potency #expands (0.80)
• The for-itself’s negation of being has a future-extending ekstatic dimension #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 604