The existentialists are there to remind us: it’s always our choice. For all its confusing French8 linguistic gymnastics, there’s a simplicity to Sartre’s existentialism: we choose to act, and the choices are ours and ours alone. And there’s a comfort, sometimes, in Camus’s existentialism: just being human often feels ridiculous, and true happiness may come from accepting that ridiculousness as inescapable. Both men also encourage us not to dwell on our mistakes. Okay, we blew it. Next time: don’t. If Aristotle tells us to keep trying different things in order to find the bullseye of virtue,
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