Final answer:
The concept that human freedom might cause anxiety and feelings of being forlorn is deeply rooted in existentialist philosophy, which posits that humans are free beings burdened with the responsibility for creating their own meaning and values, leading to potential existential anxiety.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question of why human freedom might cause one to feel anxious and forlorn is deeply rooted in existential philosophy, particularly in the thoughts of existentialist thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche. The existentialists posited that humans are inherently free, which Sartre famously described as being 'condemned to be free'. This freedom is not merely about making choices; it is the essence of our being, what Sartre referred to as being-for-Itself as opposed to inanimate objects, which are being-in-itself.
This immense freedom carries a burden of responsibility; if we are truly free, we must acknowledge that we are entirely responsible for our actions, for our own projects, and for the creation of our own values. The realization of this can cause a deep existential anxiety, often referred to as fear and trembling or nausea, because it means that there is no inherent meaning to our actions outside of the meaning we ascribe to them. This can lead to feelings of being forlorn, as the weight of creating our own purpose in a seemingly indifferent universe can be daunting.
The converse to this existential freedom is the deterministic view, which suggests our actions and choices might be fully determined by prior causes, much like the certainty of a book's fall being governed by gravity. This deterministic perspective wrestles with the concept of human freedom, suggesting that our choices may simply be the result of past experiences rather than an expression of our free will. Ultimately, the existentialists challenge this notion, arguing for the radical freedom and responsibility of the individual, which may indeed provoke feelings of anxiety and desolation in the recognition of our solitude in facing the universe.