The Choice of an Identity
Being and NothingnessThis character-destiny thread follows how a person's identity is simultaneously chosen, situated, and assigned from outside.
increasing
Bearing strength in each event
decreasing
Given Characteristics

Given Characteristics
Unchosen Conditions
A person discovers a body, past, place, and social setting that were not freely selected. These conditions shape what can be done.
No Fixed Essence
The conditions do not by themselves determine who the person must become. Their meaning arises within a free project.
A Public Identity

A Public Identity
Names from Others
Race, nationality, occupation, and class can be assigned from outside and lived as limits. They belong to the person's being-for-others.
Alienation
The person cannot experience those descriptions exactly as the Other does, even while recognizing their consequences.
Assuming the Given

Assuming the Given
Free Recovery
A person may reject, accept, or reinterpret an assigned identity. Even refusal is a way of assuming the situation.
Limits Remain
The choice does not erase the external fact. The person can choose a way of being a condition, not whether the condition was imposed.
Identity as a Project

Identity as a Project
Concrete Conduct
The person becomes a member of a class, nation, or family through particular practices and relations. Abstract labels are realized in conduct.
Responsibility
The individual's project gives these structures their lived meaning while remaining shaped by a shared world.
No Final Self-Portrait

No Final Self-Portrait
Beyond the Description
No public label or private decision exhausts the person. The self remains a project that can reinterpret the meaning of its conditions.
Destiny
The person is responsible for assuming an identity but never fully controls how others preserve it.
Part Four, Chapter One, discussion of facticity and situation
Part Four, Chapter One, discussion of nationality and class
Part Four, Chapter One, discussion of unrealizables
Part Four, Chapter One, discussion of techniques and social groups
Part Four, Chapter One, concluding discussion of situation