Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Man is condemned to be free.”
Jean-Paul Sartre · Existentialism · Modern · 1945
What does it mean?
Man is condemned to be free. Freedom is not a prize. It is a sentence. We did not create ourselves, and from there we are responsible for what we do, including the refusal to choose, which is still a choice. A rival reading says the line blames people for circumstances: the condemned freedom becomes a whip. His later work wrestles with that. Another reading hears despair and stops. He redefines anguish, abandonment, and despair so they are not the everyday moods the words suggest. You can reject the redefinition.
Did Jean-Paul Sartre really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Standard English of a sentence in the same lecture. 'Condemned' because we did not create ourselves, and yet we are responsible for everything we do from there.
Where it comes from
Existentialism Is a Humanism
Approximate date: 1945.
How to use it
Look at one place, a tenancy, a shift pattern, a family role in a house in Bradford, where you describe yourself as having no choice. Separate the real constraints from the authorship you are still exercising inside them. The separation can be honest. It can also be a way of scolding someone whose constraints you do not share.
A mindset reading
Condemned to be free is not 'everything is your fault'. Situation remains. Using the sentence as a whip is a misreading his own politics eventually had to complicate. The lecture is still more rhetorical than the treatise.
Understand the philosophy
The line is from the same public defence as 'existence precedes essence'. Being and Nothingness is the heavier treatment of freedom, bad faith, and the other. The lecture is the door, not the building.
- freedom
- self
- ethics
FAQ
What does it mean?
Man is condemned to be free. Freedom is not a prize. It is a sentence. We did not create ourselves, and from there we are responsible for what we do, including the refusal to choose, which is still a choice. A rival reading says the line blames people for circumstances: the condemned freedom becomes a whip. His later work wrestles with that. Another reading hears despair and stops. He redefines anguish, abandonment, and despair so they are not the everyday moods the words suggest. You can reject the redefinition.
Did Jean-Paul Sartre really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Standard English of a sentence in the same lecture. 'Condemned' because we did not create ourselves, and yet we are responsible for everything we do from there.
Which work is it in?
Existentialism Is a Humanism Approximate date: 1945.