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Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Existentialism and the lack of free choice For thousands of years, the individual’s freedom notion has been a major subject of debate among many philosophers, as to whether people are free to do what they want, or it is limited. Broadly defined, freedom can be identified as the ability to think, say, and act whatever an individual wishes to, while for Hobbes, it is “the silence of the law” (Blackburn 141). The philosophy has been to deal with the freedom concept, as we must all then decide “whether human beings are free, whether they should be free, what this means, and what institutions” can be built on these ideas (Manzi N.p). Existentialism, the set of philosophical ideas that are "concerned with free will, choice, and personal responsibility,” (Soll N.p) has evolved over time. In this essay I explore the differing facets, pitting the proponents and opponents of existentialism and its advocacy for free choice against the lack of free choice, espousing that individual indeed lack free choice, relying on various philosophers and their arguments on the subject. Existentialism is a philosophical movement that is concerned with a person's choice, freedom, existence, and being; that there is always a component of choice. As Montoya (N.p) states, we will have a choice always, and as long as we select anything, whether positive or negative, we set the definition of who we are, free! Existentialists believe that there are no universally acceptable guidelines for a majority of the decisions we make, because the choices we make are often unique to us, as they are founded on our biases, beliefs, and experiences without any
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