Dagfinn Fϕllesdal

A philosophy whose sole dogma is the affirmation of human freedom." ¹ Thus Sartre characterizes his philosophy. But Sartre is never satisfied
with commonplace observations. Not only is man "completely free," ² free
"regardless of circumstances, regardless of time or place," ³ but as a con-
sequence of his freedom, man has unlimited responsibility: "I am as pro-
foundly responsible for the war as if I had myself declared it," he says,
and "I must be without remorse or regret as I am without excuse." To Jules
Romains' statement that "in war there are no innocent victims," Sartre
adds: "We have the war we deserve." As if this were not enough, Sartre
continues: "Someone will say, 'I did not ask to be born.' This is a naive way
of throwing greater emphasis on our facticity. I am responsible for every-
thing, in fact, except for my very responsibility . . . everything happens as if
I were compelled to be responsible . . . in a certain sense I choose being
born." ⁴

Especially this last sentence ought to give pause to those interpreters
of Sartre who attempt to "save" Sartre by distinguishing two senses of the
word "choice." A choice may be something that implies action; to choose
to do A is to do A, it is said. But a choice may also be an internal psycholog-
ical event; one may choose to do A but do something quite different,
perhaps because one discovers that one is not able to do A. According to
this interpretation Sartre does not mean that we are free to do whatever
we might choose to do; he means only that our choice, as a psychological
event, is free.

This commonly posited distinction between two notions of choice is of
little help in trying to understand Sartre. For when did I choose to be born?
Does it make sense at all to speak of choice, freedom, and responsibility
here? What shall we then do? Shall we write off Sartre as unclear and
confused, more interested in causing a stir than in imparting insight, or
should his moments of inscrutability make us regard with even greater re-
spect those parts of his philosophy which we think we understand? Neither

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