REVISITING SARTRE: CHOICE AS A GIFT

Abstract

This article aimed to articulate the concept of freedom and choice from the existentialist perspective of Jean-Paul Sartre. The methodology used was bibliographical research of an explanatory nature. At first, a distinction was made between the terms ontological freedom and freedom in situation, later, the power of choice was explained. For Sartre, human beings are constitutively free and responsible for their choices and, therefore, it is up to them to define their own history. Freedom is not a quality of the human being, nor is it synonymous with free will, but it is freedom that constitutes the being as a subject. Furthermore, freedom is not absolute, as man lives concretely in a social context, circumvented by rules to which he must submit in order to survive. And then, freedom will always be exercised within a specific situation. In short, the choices that a person makes throughout life define their essence, thus, being free is the act of deciding and taking responsibility for one's own existence.