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angst
Angst is a German word that
is most closely approximated in English by the work anxiety.
It has taken on a special philosophical meaning from the works of the
philosophers Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
as well as other existentialists and phenomenologists.
The concept was first described by the Danish philosopher Sören Kierkegaard
(1813-1855), who described it a "the dizziness of freedom". What he meant
was that the ability to choose values and actions is frightening as well
as exhilarating. This is especially true when one considers such choices
in the context of a finite life.
Angst develops when one contemplates choice in the face of mortality and
accepts the possibility of the world going on after one is dead; that
is, the possibility of not being. It is not a personal response to a specific
situation so much as an overriding dread of death and nothingness, which
sets the context for major decisions in life.
Angst can be particularly intense when one has to make moral decisions
that determine the nature of one's character and existence.
Some people become paralysed by angst and live in "fear and trembling"
(another phrase from Keirkegaard) until they are forced to make decisions
and excercise their freedon and accept the responsibility that it entails.
Herbert Kohl, From
Achetype to Zeitgeist, Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1992
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