This homage to existentialist thinker and radical social reformer André Gorz is used as an opportunity to convey the sensitive, personal dimension of his theorizing. Gorz’s proposals are shown to rest upon a philosophy organised around the theme of freedom and alienation, which is itself founded on an attempt to understand himself as a man. In particular, the author establishes that Gorz’s model of political ecology based upon aspirations to autonomy and self-determination is inseparable from demanding effort to exist as a subject by managing his conflicting drives towards integration in the world on the one hand and refusal of it on the other.