"The existentialist says at once that man is anguish"
About this Quote
Sartre opens with a verbal sucker punch: not that man feels anguish, but that man is anguish. The move is ontological, not therapeutic. He’s stripping away the comforting idea that anxiety is a passing weather system over an otherwise stable self. For Sartre, the self is a project without a blueprint, thrown into the world and forced to author meaning in real time. Anguish isn’t a symptom; it’s the price tag on freedom.
The context matters. Postwar Europe is littered with evidence that “orders,” “natures,” and “destinies” can be invoked to excuse almost anything. Sartre’s existentialism tries to close that loophole. If there is no prewritten human essence - no divine job description, no moral code embedded in the bones - then every choice is a kind of legislation. When I choose, I implicitly endorse a picture of what a human being should be. Anguish is the awareness of that scale: my private decision carries a public weight.
The subtext is a rebuke to bad faith, Sartre’s term for the little scams we run on ourselves to avoid responsibility: “I couldn’t help it,” “That’s just who I am,” “I was following orders.” Anguish arrives when those alibis collapse. It’s not melodrama; it’s clarity. Sartre is insisting that maturity begins where reassurance ends, and that ethical life is built not on certainty, but on the courage to act without guarantees.
The context matters. Postwar Europe is littered with evidence that “orders,” “natures,” and “destinies” can be invoked to excuse almost anything. Sartre’s existentialism tries to close that loophole. If there is no prewritten human essence - no divine job description, no moral code embedded in the bones - then every choice is a kind of legislation. When I choose, I implicitly endorse a picture of what a human being should be. Anguish is the awareness of that scale: my private decision carries a public weight.
The subtext is a rebuke to bad faith, Sartre’s term for the little scams we run on ourselves to avoid responsibility: “I couldn’t help it,” “That’s just who I am,” “I was following orders.” Anguish arrives when those alibis collapse. It’s not melodrama; it’s clarity. Sartre is insisting that maturity begins where reassurance ends, and that ethical life is built not on certainty, but on the courage to act without guarantees.
Quote Details
| Topic | Deep |
|---|
More Quotes by Jean-Paul
Add to List
