One thing philosophers love to do is talk about freedom. The idea of free will is a topic that is often debated and discussed in the philosophical world. Am I technically free to do what I REALLY want to do? What is my relationship with freedom and is it my own choice to be free?
Let’s explore Sartre’s philosophy of nothingness and freedom and ask if I am “free” to do whatever I want.
Sartre first characterizes nothingness of being. Our consciousness is basically nothing until we are conscious of something . For example, I am conscious that there is a la croix can on my desk. I am aware that this la croix can exists and it also makes me aware that I am conscious to perceive and acknowledge the can of la croix.
Sartre basically would say that this la croix can (consciousness being conscious) separates my consciousness from being nothing. My consciousness on its OWN is nothing if I am not conscious of anything.
If we are really nothing without consciousness interpreting the objects around us, are we free? How does this idea of being a literal blank slate have to do with freedom?
According to Sartre, freedom is actually just the reality of things. We don’t have a choice in freedom, we just are. It is the fact that the root of us is nothing that creates freedom in our reality. Sartre states that what we call freedom is “impossible to distinguish from the being of “human reality” (Sartre 113).
This is kind of anticlimactic, but freedom isn’t a choice. My own freedom is not my choice, which is a weird way to put it. I can technically do whatever I want, but it is not my choice to do whatever i want. It’s just how it is.
