The refusal to choose is itself a choice.

Evidence

In one sense choice is possible, but what is not possible is not to choose. I can always choose, but I must know that if I do not choose, that is still a choice. This, although it may appear merely formal, is of great importance as a limit to fantasy and caprice. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 26

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core existentialist doctrine: the inescapability of choosing, distinguishing choice from caprice.
• ADDENDUM: Pairs naturally with the Sartre/Beauvoir ethics reading; the necessity of choice echoes Beauvoir’s ‘The Ethics of Ambiguity’.
• XREF: connects to: The fundamental project is the for-itself’s choice of its own being-in-the-world. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1107; The inferiority complex is freely chosen rather than unconsciously suffered.; A fundamental choice is only real as a choice in the world — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1147 (+8 more)

Related

• An emancipated society might freely choose not to develop (similarity 0.90)
• A fundamental choice is only real as a choice in the world (similarity 0.86)
• Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be (similarity 0.85)
• Absurdity means the choice grounds all reasons and reasons-for-being (similarity 0.85)
• Freedom’s only limit is itself; we cannot choose not to be free (similarity 0.84)
• Absolute freedom makes one’s every choice perpetually fragile and invertible (similarity 0.83)
• Human universality is perpetually made by choice, not given in advance. (similarity 0.82)
• Freedom requires choosing one’s own essence, not merely one’s acts (similarity 0.81)
• Freedom is only real once it chooses its own finitude. (similarity 0.81)
• Freedom requires a perpetual renewal of self-choice without any support (similarity 0.81)
• Refusal to take a stance on one’s identity is itself a stance. (similarity 0.81)
• Freedom exists only as engaged, self-choosing action, never as undetermined potential (similarity 0.81)
• Freedom means choosing oneself within one’s world, not choosing the world itself. (similarity 0.81)
• Freedom means autonomy of choice, not success in obtaining one’s ends. (similarity 0.80)
• Denying that one freely chooses ends makes one enslaved to those ends (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• An emancipated society might freely choose not to develop #exemplifies (0.85)