Exceptional beauty condemns its bearers to a forced choice between dead ends.

Evidence

In many situations, “whatever I may choose to do, I will be unfaithful to my profound desire to respect human life; and yet I am forced to choose; no reality external to myself indicates my choice [aucune réalité extérieure à moi-même ne m’indique mon choix].” Neither pre-given ethical imperatives (which the Kantian autonomous self claims freely to follow), nor claims about the necessary course of History (beloved by certain deterministic Marxists) may justify our decisions. Here, says Beauvoir, is the source of the anguish that so many fl ee in bad faith. For we are alone in our freedom and in our responsibility; we act in a world where nothing tells us what we should decide and where we cannot avoid violence. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 480 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Beauvoir grounds anguish in forced choice without external justification — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 480

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir grounds anguish in forced choice without external justification #expands (0.72) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 480