To choose or not to choose. That is the question.

This week, our class discussed Sartre. He is the founder of existentialism, which is a philosophy of human freedom and responsibility. He also says that human freedom is defined by our ability to negate. I thought it was very interesting when we were talking about whether we can lie to ourselves. I thought the examples that were given were interesting as well. In particular, I liked the story about the woman on the date. I found it relatable, but in a different way than others in the class may have. It talks about the woman choosing not to choose whether to go further with the man she is on the date with or not. However, this statement is contradictory because you have to choose whether to choose or not. This reminds me of when people are debating and agree to disagree. The people are deciding not to make a decision whether they are going to change their beliefs or not. I used to debate with others often when I was younger, and have “agreed to disagree” with many people in the past because neither of us were willing to change our views. This made me relate to the stories. Finding this way to connect myself to one of these stories made me wonder if anyone else had ever been in a situation similar to the ones presented in the class and whether they related to the examples as a result.