An idea · Twentieth Century (to mid-century) · first attested 1943
Radical Freedom
We are condemned to be free.
Sartre's most uncomfortable claim. Even in situations of overwhelming constraint, a margin of choice remains — including the choice of how to interpret the situation. Even the prisoner chooses, in some sense, how to be a prisoner. The corollary: we cannot escape responsibility for what we make of ourselves by blaming circumstance, biology, or upbringing.