Accusations of existentialist pessimism mask anxiety about real choice

Evidence

It is, however, the people who are forever mouthing these dismal proverbs and, whenever they are told of some more or less repulsive action, say “How like human nature!” – it is these very people, always harping upon realism, who complain that existentialism is too gloomy a view of things. Indeed their excessive protests make me suspect that what is annoying them is not so much our pessimism, but, much more likely, our optimism. For at bottom, what is alarming in the doctrine that I am about to try to explain to you is – is it not? – that it confronts man with a possibility of choice. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 5

Categorization

• XREF: This reversal — that accusations of gloom actually betray fear of freedom — echoes the dismissive clichés about ‘realism’ that Beauvoir dismantles in The Second Sex and connects to the reader’s interest in existentialist ethics. — connects to: Existentialism is accused of teaching passive despair and quietism — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 2; Existentialist ‘choice’ rhetoric can become a form of torment toward the suffering — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 561; Existentialist anxiety is the vertigo of realizing one’s own freedom — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 61 (+2 more)

Related

• Existentialism is accused of teaching passive despair and quietism (similarity 0.87)
• Existentialist ‘choice’ rhetoric can become a form of torment toward the suffering (similarity 0.80)
• Existentialist anxiety is the vertigo of realizing one’s own freedom (similarity 0.80)
• Existentialist despair means relying only on what lies within one’s own will and action (similarity 0.80)
• Existentialist ethics demand acting as if the fate of humanity rests on each choice (similarity 0.79)
• Existentialism’s critics rightly saw it could be misused as an excuse doctrine (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Existentialist ‘choice’ rhetoric can become a form of torment toward the suffering #expands (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 561
• Existentialism is accused of teaching passive despair and quietism #responds-to (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 2
• Existentialist anxiety is the vertigo of realizing one’s own freedom #responds-to (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 61