Anguish reveals that one’s original choice is unjustifiable and contingent

Evidence

In anguish we do not simply apprehend the fact that the possibles which we project are perpetually eaten away by our freedom-to-come; in addition we apprehend our choice—i.e., ourselves—as unjustifiable. This means that we apprehend our choice as not deriving from any prior reality but rather as being about to serve as foundation for the ensemble of significations which constitute reality. Unjustifiability is not only the subjective recognition of the absolute contingency of our being but also that of the interiorization and recovery of this contingency on our own account. For the choice—as we shall see—issues from the contingency of the in-itself which it nihilates and transports it to the level of the gratuitous determination of the for-itself by itself. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1120

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies exactly what ‘unjustifiable’ means for Sartre: not deriving from prior reality but founding all significations.
• XREF: Connects to the earlier discussion of anguish as revealing freedom in Being and Nothingness’s opening sections. — connects to: Anguish arises because the self’s future identity is never guaranteed — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 454; Anguish and responsibility are the felt consciousness of self-choice. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1118; The absurdity of choice lives in a felt unjustifiability that freedom itself generates — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1147 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• The absurdity of choice lives in a felt unjustifiability that freedom itself generates #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1147
• Anguish is consciousness of being one’s own future in the mode of not-being #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 239
• The supposed intuition of freedom is a constructed evasion of anguish #complicates (0.75)