Existential angst is the anxiety caused by the belief that life has no inherent meaning, and that people must create their own. This freedom and responsibility can lead to heartache and difficult moral choices. The concept was first explored by philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, and later embraced by European intellectuals disillusioned by world wars. Existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre saw it as a natural consequence of free will, but Kierkegaard argued it could enable moral choices. The concept is often parodied in popular media.
Existential angst is a condition of dread or anxiety related to the philosophy known as existentialism. Existentialism is the belief that life has no other meaning than what people give it. All people therefore have the freedom to choose any action, as well as the responsibility to accept the consequences of that action. It is precisely this freedom and responsibility that cause existential angst. Moral people, existentialists argue, can have no other sensible answers to the terrible burdens of their choices.
The English word “angst” comes from the same Latin root as “anguish” and “anxiety” and conveys a similar meaning. The word has roughly the same definition and spelling in German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages. The concept of existential angst was first explored by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in his 1844 book Begrebet Angest, or The Concept of Anxiety. Kierkegaard was a pioneer of existentialist thought, which he saw as an extension of his own spiritual and moral beliefs. A century later, the philosophy was embraced by many European intellectuals who were disillusioned with the battles and genocides they had witnessed in the world wars.
Kierkegaard’s classic example of existential angst involved describing a man standing on the edge of a high cliff or building. Along with the fear of accidentally falling, man feels the irrational urge to deliberately throw himself over the edge. The emotion he feels when he realizes he has this option is heartache. Kierkegaard described it as “the vertigo of freedom”. He saw it as the burden of making moral choices as a consequence of free will.
Existentialists of the 1940s, such as the French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre, sometimes did not share Kierkegaard’s belief in God and a higher order. Life seemed to have no overriding meaning or order beyond what was created by human beings. This added new and often grim dimensions to existential angst. Sartre’s play No Exit, perhaps the most famous work of existentialist literature, involves people trapped in a bleak afterlife due to their poor choices. For philosophers like Sartre, existential angst was a natural consequence of being free to make such awful choices.
However, existential angst isn’t always a reason for despair. Kierkegaard argued that it also enabled people to set boundaries and make moral choices. Despite this, angst is the best known aspect of existentialism, and is often invoked when the philosophy is discussed or parodied in the popular media. Director Woody Allen, playwright Tom Stoppard and the Monty Python comedy troupe all have existentialist falsehoods in their plays and films. Parody newspaper The Onion ran a series of articles in the early 2000s in which science “proved” that life was meaningless, eliciting angst-filled existential quotes from fictitious members of the American public.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
