Thrownness (Geworfenheit)Geworfenheit

Heidegger says that we find ourselves within conditions we did not choose, and he calls this thrownness. The time we are born into, our body, our language, and our family are not our choosing; we are thrown into them. Freedom is not the absence of this ground but what we do with what is given. The concept points to responsibility without denying the weight of the past.