Gary Cox

Is the author of several books on existentialism and general philosophy. The 10th anniversary edition of his bestselling self-help book How to Be an Existentialist was published recently. Gavin Smith talks with him about existentialism.

- Gavin Smith

You begin your introduction to the anniversary edition by talking about the truths of existentialism being timeless. But do you think the heightened anxieties that seem so prevalent make existentialism especially relevant now?

To answer your question I need to set out briefly what the timeless truths of existentialism are. Basically, they’re the timeless truths of the human condition. Specifically, these are that we’re inalienably free in that we are constantly confronted by the requirement to choose who we are through choosing what we do. We are responsible for the choices we make. It is often recognised that existentialism is a philosophy of freedom, less so that it is a philosophy of responsibility. Our inalienable freedom makes us anxious. In The Concept of Anxiety (1844), the original existentialist Søren Kierkegaard wrote, “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom”. It is the result of responsibility. Fear is the possibility that I might fall; anxiety is that there is nothing to stop me from jumping.

At any given moment, we are indeterminate in the sense that we are no longer what we were and not yet what we hope to become through our current actions. We always lack in the present what we hope to gain in the future. This lack is the basis of desire. We are embodied.