ABSTRACT
Sartre is often quoted as saying that humans are ‘condemned to be free’ (B&N: 462; EH: 29; see also TR: 308). We are condemned to the kind of existence we have because we did not choose it and we cannot escape it, except by ceasing to exist altogether. This kind of existence includes freedom because the ways in which the world seems to us, the ways in which we think and feel about it, and the ways in which we behave in response to it are all ultimately manifestations of projects that we have chosen to pursue, that we need not have chosen, and that each of us can yet choose to change. Our characters are not simply given to us, on this view, but are things that we have freedom over. My essence is not my nature: ‘I am condemned to exist forever beyond my essence’ and ‘beyond the motifs and mobiles of my act’ (B&N: 461-2).
