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Transitioning to existential questions, focusing on Jean-Paul Sartre and the burden of choice.
Imagine you wake up on a theater stage with no script, no director, and a live audience waiting. You have no character description—you must decide, in every second, who you are and what you will do next. Is this ultimate power, or a total nightmare?
Quick Check
According to Sartre, why can't a human being have a 'purpose' in the same way a hammer does?
Answer
Because a hammer is designed with a specific function before it is made, whereas a human exists first and must choose their own purpose through action.
Sartre famously stated that man is 'condemned to be free.' We are 'condemned' because we did not create ourselves, yet we are 'free' because once thrown into the world, we are responsible for everything we do. This freedom is absolute—Sartre calls it Radical Freedom. Even in extreme circumstances, you choose how to perceive your situation. This realization leads to Anguish: the dizzying anxiety of realizing that nothing—not God, not biology, not your past—dictates your next move. You are the sole author of your values. If you feel 'stuck,' Sartre would argue you are simply choosing to stay, which is a terrifying level of responsibility.
1. Imagine standing on the edge of a high cliff. 2. You feel fear, but you also feel 'vertigo.' 3. Sartre argues vertigo isn't the fear of falling; it's the fear that you could throw yourself off. 4. Nothing is stopping you but your own choice. This is the 'anguish' of realizing your radical freedom.
Quick Check
Why does Sartre use the word 'condemned' to describe our freedom?
Answer
Because we did not choose to be born, yet we are forced to carry the heavy burden of making choices and taking total responsibility for them.
Because radical freedom is terrifying, we often try to escape it through Bad Faith (mauvaise foi). This is the act of lying to oneself, pretending we are like objects with a fixed essence. We say, 'I have to do this,' or 'That's just the way I am.' By adopting a social role or blaming our circumstances, we try to hide from our freedom. We treat ourselves as a thing (facticity) rather than a consciousness (transcendence). To live authentically, one must acknowledge that they are always more than their current situation or their social title.
Sartre describes a waiter whose movements are a bit too precise, a bit too 'waiter-like.' 1. The waiter is playing a role, trying to convince himself and others that he is a waiter by nature. 2. By doing this, he is in Bad Faith; he is pretending he doesn't have the freedom to walk away or be something else. 3. He is treating his 'essence' as a waiter as if it were a physical law, like gravity, to avoid the anxiety of choice.
Which of the following best describes 'Bad Faith'?
If , what is the primary source of human value?
Sartre believes that 'anguish' is a negative emotion that we should try to eliminate through therapy.
Review Tomorrow
In 24 hours, try to explain the 'Waiter in the Café' example to a friend and identify one moment today where you used the phrase 'I have to' as a form of bad faith.
Practice Activity
Journaling: Write down a major choice you face. List the 'excuses' you use to limit your options, then rewrite them as active choices (e.g., change 'I can't quit' to 'I am choosing to stay because...').