Existentialists saw freedom as a source of existential angst because genuine freedom requires individuals to choose without guaranteed moral certainty and to accept responsibility for what those choices make them become. Freedom is therefore both empowering and psychologically disturbing.
For existentialists, human beings are not completely defined by a fixed essence, social role, or predetermined purpose. In Jean-Paul Sartre’s formulation, existence precedes essence: individuals first exist and then construct their identities through choices and actions.
This creates angst because no external authority can remove the burden of choosing. Even following a religious rule, political ideology, or social expectation involves choosing to treat that authority as decisive. Sartre therefore argues that humans are “condemned to be free”: they did not choose to exist, but once they exist, they cannot avoid responsibility for their responses.
| Aspect of freedom | Why it produces angst |
|---|---|
| Multiple possibilities | Choosing one possibility means rejecting others without knowing the outcome. |
| Lack of guaranteed values | There may be no objective rule that conclusively determines the correct choice. |
| Responsibility | The individual must recognize that choices help create identity and values. |
| Awareness of possibility | For Søren Kierkegaard, anxiety is the “dizziness of freedom” experienced when recognizing what one could do. |
| Facticity | Circumstances constrain available options, but do not completely eliminate responsibility for responding to them. |
To escape this burden, a person may adopt bad faith, Sartre’s term for denying freedom by pretending to be entirely determined by a role, character trait, or circumstance. However, this attempted escape is itself a choice.
A common misconception is that existentialists define freedom as unlimited power. They instead emphasize situated freedom: individuals choose within conditions they did not select, including their body, past, society, and historical situation.
For an IB Philosophy response, explain the chain clearly: freedom creates possibilities; possibilities require choice; choice lacks certainty; and responsibility for that choice produces angst. Evaluate the claim by asking whether social, psychological, or biological constraints weaken Sartre’s account of responsibility.