Are We Condemned To Be Free?

An existentialist perspective

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French existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre is famous within the philosophical tradition known as existentialism. In a nutshell existentialism, states humans have no inherent purpose or essence and that we make our own meaning.

Sartre gave a lecture in 1946 titled “Existentialism is a Humanism”, in this lecture he gives the famous quote, “man is condemned to be free”. But what does Sartre mean by saying this? How does this phrase apply to existential philosophy? What can we learn from this idea of being “condemned” to freedom?

We first need to understand Sartre’s perspective, since man has no inherent purpose or essence he or she defines themselves. People simply are and we then define ourselves later, in Sartre’s view there is no God and no concept of human nature… we simply exist and justify our existence afterward.

…it is true that existence is prior to essence, man is responsible for what he is. Thus, the first effect of existentialism is that it puts every man in possession of himself as he is, and places the entire responsibility for his existence squarely upon his own shoulders.

Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism (1946)

Since we are responsible for our own existence we are condemned to be free. We cannot…