Summary: Being and Nothingness (page 4)

Now what must human freedom be for nothingness to come into the world through it? ¹

Freedom is not a faculty of the human soul, nor a property of human nature. Rather, the human being is freedom: There is no distinction between the human being’s being and their 'being-free' ².

Human reality can only detach itself from the world—through questioning, methodical doubt, epochè, and similar operations—if it is, by its very nature, capable of detachment. For Descartes, doubt itself is grounded in freedom. Yet nothingness can only enter the world if it is already present within the human being.

What form does the consciousness of freedom take? Anxiety.

It is in anxiety that the human being becomes fully aware of their freedom ³.

Sartre invokes Kierkegaard's distinction between two states: fear, which pertains to external beings in the world, and anxiety, which relates to the self.

For example, I may fear a precipice, but I experience anxiety over the possibility of throwing myself into it. Similarly, a soldier may be frightened by the threat of a bombing, but anxiety arises when they confront the uncertainty of how they will act during such an event.

To avoid anxiety, one might attempt to embrace a strict psychological determinism—believing that motives determine behaviour. However, anxiety arises precisely because my actions are not determined; they remain merely possible ⁴. Anxiety thus reveals to me that I am free. In other words, the human being experiences anxiety because they are free.

To escape anxiety, we often attempt to believe in determinism. Consider, for example, the gambler who resolves to stop gambling. Standing before the green table, they feel anxiety because, despite having painstakingly built barriers and made firm resolutions, they are anguished to realise that nothing prevents them from gambling ⁵.

To demonstrate that the human being is always separated from their essence by nothingness ⁶, Sartre refers to Hegel’s words: Wesen ist was gewesen ist ⁷ ('Essence is what has been').

Anxiety rarely surfaces, even though human beings are always free, for freedom is only grasped through reflection. As long as one remains absorbed in action, the question of freedom does not arise ⁸.

And yet, are there not values that could guide our choices and alleviate our anxiety?

In truth, my freedom is the sole foundation of values. Consequently, nothing—absolutely nothing—justifies my adoption of one set of values over another ⁹. Value belongs to the realm of the ideal, not that of being. It is not given to intuition but created by freedom. It is because we are free that values exist.

This generates anxiety, for if there is no basis for values beyond my freedom, there is no sufficient reason to choose one course of action over another:

My freedom is a source of anguish, being the groundless foundation of all values ¹⁰.

The world is filled with devices that guard against anxiety ¹¹: alarm clocks, road signs, tax forms, and police officers, all of which create the illusion of determinism, as though we have no choice but to obey. Yet, I suddenly realise that I am the one who gives meaning to the alarm clock, the one who forbids myself, on the basis of a sign, to step on a lawn... the one who makes values exist ¹².

Ultimately, I must give meaning to the world and to my essence. I decide on my own—unjustifiably and without excuse ¹³. This realisation creates anxiety, which is nothing other than freedom's reflexive awareness of itself ¹⁴.

We escape this anxiety by denying our freedom in various ways. Psychological determinism, for instance, is a form of self-justification, or rather, the foundation of all forms of self-justification ¹⁵. It aims to persuade us that we exist as beings-in-themselves, as mere things.

¹ ibid.
² ibid., p.60
³ ibid., p.64
⁴ ibid., p.66
⁵ ibid., p.68
⁶ ibid., p.70
⁷ ibid.
⁸ ibid., p.72
⁹ ibid., p.73
¹⁰ ibid.
¹¹ ibid., p.74
¹² ibid.
¹³ ibid.
¹⁴ ibid.
¹⁵ ibid., p.75