Coefficient of adversity
Being and NothingnessThe Coefficient of adversity names the resistance that external objects offer to the projects of the For-itself. It describes the world’s opposition as encountered in action: objects can impede a project, but their resistance does not itself dictate what the person must choose or do.
Definition and Scope
The concept concerns the amount of resistance external objects offer to a project. Its scope is practical rather than a general measure of an object’s properties: resistance matters as it bears on a person’s attempt to accomplish something. The term is borrowed from Gaston Bachelard.
Relation to Projects
The coefficient is relative to the For-itself’s projects. An object’s resistance becomes significant through the action it hinders; the same external world is thus encountered in terms of a chosen undertaking. The concept gives material obstruction a place in human action without turning it into a deterministic cause: resistance shapes the difficulty of a project, but does not by itself settle the response or outcome.
Philosophical Significance
The term captures the encounter between freedom and an external world that is not simply compliant. Projects meet resistance, yet the resistance is intelligible in relation to the ends toward which action is directed. The Coefficient of adversity therefore describes a condition of acting, not a force that cancels the agent’s project or removes the distinction between obstruction and determination.
