Understanding The Phenomenon Of Bad Faith Essay

Jean-Paul Sartre is a French philosopher who makes his claims based on a combination of two philosophical traditions – existentialism and phenomenology. Sartre himself is an atheistic existentialist. He summarizes his claims regarding existentialism with three words – anguish, abandonment, and despair (25). In this paper, I will talk about Sartre’s definition of existentialism, its relation to essence, Sartre’s views on the moral choices and how they relate to art.

God had put man through a test in naming all of creation, which in addition to revealing to man his freedom, allowed him to become aware of his difference from the rest of creation. He was also not God. Man is conscious that he belongs to the visible world as a body among different bodies, but he was self-consciously in search of his identity and felt alone (another sign of self-knowledge), because he was different from the rest of creation and from God. This indicates man’s original subjectivity.

Living in bad faith is similar to a life of self-deception. Sartre believed people, under the pressures of social forces, adopt mannerisms or values associated with functions, like their job and use it to deny their radical freedom. They mold themselves into objects and allow themselves to fall victim to greater forces of society. In Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, he writes of a waiter who convinces himself that he is nothing

This essay features the discussion of the problem of evil in relation to the existence of god. Specifically outlining two sections where the problem of evil is discussed from atheist and theistic viewpoint.

It all took place more than 400 years ago. Francisco Noguerol de Ulloa was sentenced to exile for three years, forced to pay a minimal fine to His Majesty, and was forbidden to see his second wife, Catalina. The crime he, unintentionally, committed was bigamy, marriage to two wives. Noguerol was a rich man, a devout Catholic and a high – ranking political and social being. Yet he was convicted of bigamy and was thrown in prison like an ordinary criminal. The source of his downfall was two scheming nuns. During the sixteenth century, wealth, religious values, and political status played a significant role in Colonial Latin America. Women and their chastity were honored; Catholic Churches

In the book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, by Seth Holmes he mentioned the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and his philosophy “Bad Faith”. Holmes explains “The phrase “bad faith” was introduced by Jean-Paul Sartre to describe the ways in which individuals knowingly deceive themselves to avoid acknowledging realities disturbing to them(Holmes86). The phrase explains us, when something bad is happening in our lives, we lie to ourselves to escape the truth that we don’t have to face them. This happens to everyone when we commit a really bad mistake and we don’t want to accept it. Another way this may happen is when you’re in a bad situation and you try to replace it with something else to get your mind off of it. Basically it’s a distraction, so we don’t think about what’s actually going on.

In this essay I will discuss the ontological problem of the existence of God and discuss Pascal’s Wager and how it solves the issue. The problem with the proof of the existence of God is that it is not something we will know for sure until our dying day. We can speculate and bet on his existence and “feel” his presence but at this point it is just that, only a bet. This wager is famous for opening up minds to look at the problem in a bigger picture. The problem with the existence of God is not in the answer but instead in the question. Pascal is responsible for refocusing this discussion on God to the bigger problem of the existential context of human life. In a way this can all be broken down to very black and white terms “Either God is or he is not.” But upon looking further we realize that this is a much bigger issue with many grey areas than something as simple as ‘is or is not’.

Jean Paul Sartre's Existential philosophy posits that is in man, and in man alone, that existence precedes essence. Simply put, Sartre means that man is first, and only subsequently to his “isness” does he become this or that. The implication in Sartre's philosophy is that man must create his own essence: it is in being thrown into the world through consciounsess intent, loving, struggling, experiencing and being in the world that man is alllowed to define itself. Yet, the definition always remains open ended: we cannot say that a human is definitively this or that before its death and indeed, it is the ultimate nothingness of death that being is defined. The concepts that Sartre examines in Being and Nothingness

One other aspect of Bad faith is someone denies current life situation because of past ego or event . And because of this current is negligible and we give importance to what don’t exist. For example a person is not always a bad person if he was in past he can change but if we deny this situation and only restrict to past then we can’t change situation in a positive manner. De Beauvoir described three main types of women acting in bad faith: the Narcissist who denies her freedom by construing herself as a desirable object; the Mystic, who invests her freedom in an absolute; and the Woman in Love, who submerges her identity in that of her male object. She also considered what she called the Serious Man, who subordinated himself to some outside

That is man is acknowledging his facticity, that he come from athe thing, but he knows that he is more than just a thing. Because he comes to this logical conclusion he is acting in good faith; he is not pursuing a fundamental project in an attempt to circumvent the possibility of angst (anguish). The outcome of the path of good faith is that man manifests his freedom authentically and therefore his freedom is real.

Sartre’s stance that human existence precedes essence directly ties into his notion of rational freedom and responsibility. Existence precedes essence means that there is no predetermined human essence and that there is no human nature fixed in advance of human existence. Furthermore, if I create my essence then I am wholly responsible for the person that I am. In other words, one could say that humans exist and subsequently make themselves who they are by their actions, choices, as well as creating an image of what men ought to be. “Man simple is” (Sartre 28). When we are born we have no essence, but through experiences

In his 1946 essay Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre undertakes the task of defending existentialism against what he defines as “charges” (341) brought against it. Sartre begins to outline the “charges” brought against existentialism and further, existentialists. Following the medieval quaestio-form, Sartre begins with the statement of the objection, a short discussion, and then his reply to each.

Consciousness allows a person to recognize their existence, and subsequently, to form their essence. The

Aristotle and Heidegger have conflicting views on what a human or beings are. Although, there are some similarities to each of their set of ideas. Aristotle has a clear hierarchical framework classifying the differences between humans, animals, and plants. Heidegger opposes this strict definitions by discussing this idea of “Dasein” which states of being there. Although, their approaches to this topic are different with the types of question one asks and how they theorize about what is a being. There is key similarities that they discuss almost two thousand years apart. Aristotle and Heidegger are two philosophers that have tackled the enormous question, what is it to be a being? This paper discusses the two different approaches to defining this long standing question.

The relation between the self and the otherness is necessary to define human awareness and more importantly desire. This desire is part of the primordial human