Anguish — From Latin angustia (narrowing), German Angst. A fundamental mood in existentialist philosophy, distinct from fear (Furcht), which has a determinate object: anguish is directed toward nothingness, freedom, or finitude. Kierkegaard (The Concept of Anxiety, 1844) analyses it as the experience of freedom before pure possibility — “anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” It reveals that the human being is a synthesis of the finite and the infinite, temporality and eternity, always at risk of despair. Heidegger (Being and Time, §40) elevates anxiety to Grundbefindlichkeit (fundamental attunement): in it, the world loses its customary significance, intraworldly entities “sink” into insignificance, and Dasein finds itself confronted with nothingness — disclosing itself as being-in-the-world and being-toward-death. Anxiety individualises, wrenching Dasein from its falling into the “they.” Sartre (Being and Nothingness) identifies anguish with the consciousness of freedom: I am anguished because nothing — no essence, no prior value — determines my choice. Anguish is not pathology but the ontological condition of authentic existence.
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