“Man is anguished because he discovers that he is condemned to be free. He is free, and if he cannot rely on God or on essence, he has to face the terrible responsibility of being the origin of value and meaning.”
—
Jean-Paul Sartre
Existentialism is a Humanism (1945); Being and Nothingness (1943)
Commentary
Sartre's anguish (angoisse) is the vertiginous feeling when one fully grasps one's radical freedom and responsibility. There is no external authority (God, nature, society) that can definitively tell us what to do. We must create value and meaning.
This existential anguish distinguishes authentic existence from the false comfort of bad faith. To live authentically is to embrace this anguish and accept responsibility for one's choices without appeal to external justification.
Commentary
Sartre's anguish (angoisse) is the vertiginous feeling when one fully grasps one's radical freedom and responsibility. There is no external authority (God, nature, society) that can definitively tell us what to do. We must create value and meaning.
This existential anguish distinguishes authentic existence from the false comfort of bad faith. To live authentically is to embrace this anguish and accept responsibility for one's choices without appeal to external justification.