Single Idea 20758

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 3. Angst]

Full Idea

One may liken anxiety to dizziness. He whose eyes chance to look down into a yawning abyss becomes dizzy. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom which is when freedom gazes down into its own possibility, grasping at finiteness to sustain itself.

Gist of Idea

Anxiety is staring into the yawning abyss of freedom

Source

Søren Kierkegaard (The Concept of Dread (/Anxiety) [1844], p.55), quoted by Kevin Aho - Existentialism: an introduction 6 'Moods'

Book Reference

Aho,Kevin: 'Existentialism: an introduction' [Polity 2014], p.81


A Reaction

Most of us rapidly retreat from the thought of the infinity of things we might choose. Choosing bizarrely merely to assert one's freedom is simple stupidity.