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Introduction:
Jean Paul Sartre's account of bad faith has been the subject of many critical discussions.However ,in the midst of this surge of interest in Sartre's concept of bad faith, experiencing anguish as a necessary antecedent to Bad Faith has remained relatively neglected.In the following work, I intend to make a contribution towards rectifying this ommision.More specifically, I plan to argue that Sartre's analysis of bad faith is ambiguous .I will attempt to demonstrate that despite Sartre's insistence on the experience of anguish in his theoretical account of bad faith,his own examples of the phenomenon of bad faith (in his section"Patterns of Bad Faith")reveal no such notion of anguish .I shall agree with the theoretical account of Bad Faith that the relationship between experiencing anguish and the attempt to flee this anguish is a pre'condition of Bad Faith.Since I consider anguish to be an essential element in Bad Faith , any description of a character as being in Bad Faith without any mention of the experience of anguish as the reflective awareness of his freedom will be seen as anbiguous if nor inadequate.
My task is thus one of focusing on the experience of anguish as a pre-condition of acting in Bad Faith .And that is the principal way in which I shall interpret Sartre's ambiguity in analyzing Bad Faith.In the course of my analysis,I will gradually attempt to show some equivocations and [b]ambiguities plaguing Sartre's analysis, and I will suggest briefly some alternative interpretations.Thus,I will speculatively suggest that Sartre's Great equivocations lies in the disparity between his theoretical account of bad Faith and that of his description of the examples, especially those of the Frigid Woman,the Girl and the Water.
This book is divided into six chapters.The first three chapters introduce Sartre's theoretical account of Bad Faith.Chapters Four and Five present Sartre's illustrations of what acting in Bad Faith is like.Chapter Six discusses Good Faith :the anti-thesis of Bad Faith.
Chapter I:introduces the concept of Bad Faith in broad outlines,and discusses the emergence of the notion of Bad Faith in Sartre's writings (Nausea1938).It thus constitutes the first step in the examination of the development of the notion of Bad Faith in Sartre's thought between 1938 and 1952.The main conclusion to be drawn is that Bad Faith conceived as a lie to oneself, must be characterized in terms of two factors :one involving the experience of anguish , the other involving the attempt to flee this anguish.
Chapter II:concerns the role of negation in Sartre's views and lays the ground work for a better understanding of the relationship between negation and Bad Faith.Furthermore,this chapter explores the equivocations and difficulties involved in Sartre's treatment of negationas related to Bad Faith.The essential point to be noted is that the problem of Bad Faith is a problem about the self.Bad Faith is a conduct by which man attempts to flee from anguish in the face of the non-being of his freedom.Anguish is found to be the real immediate given of one's freedom.In Bad Faith man is in anguish in order to flee it.In attempting to escape awareness man falls into Bad Faith as he fails to fill the gap(nothingness)and introduces to the world another nothingness (non being of one's freedom).
Jean Paul Sartre's account of bad faith has been the subject of many critical discussions.However ,in the midst of this surge of interest in Sartre's concept of bad faith, experiencing anguish as a necessary antecedent to Bad Faith has remained relatively neglected.In the following work, I intend to make a contribution towards rectifying this ommision.More specifically, I plan to argue that Sartre's analysis of bad faith is ambiguous .I will attempt to demonstrate that despite Sartre's insistence on the experience of anguish in his theoretical account of bad faith,his own examples of the phenomenon of bad faith (in his section"Patterns of Bad Faith")reveal no such notion of anguish .I shall agree with the theoretical account of Bad Faith that the relationship between experiencing anguish and the attempt to flee this anguish is a pre'condition of Bad Faith.Since I consider anguish to be an essential element in Bad Faith , any description of a character as being in Bad Faith without any mention of the experience of anguish as the reflective awareness of his freedom will be seen as anbiguous if nor inadequate.
My task is thus one of focusing on the experience of anguish as a pre-condition of acting in Bad Faith .And that is the principal way in which I shall interpret Sartre's ambiguity in analyzing Bad Faith.In the course of my analysis,I will gradually attempt to show some equivocations and [b]ambiguities plaguing Sartre's analysis, and I will suggest briefly some alternative interpretations.Thus,I will speculatively suggest that Sartre's Great equivocations lies in the disparity between his theoretical account of bad Faith and that of his description of the examples, especially those of the Frigid Woman,the Girl and the Water.
This book is divided into six chapters.The first three chapters introduce Sartre's theoretical account of Bad Faith.Chapters Four and Five present Sartre's illustrations of what acting in Bad Faith is like.Chapter Six discusses Good Faith :the anti-thesis of Bad Faith.
Chapter I:introduces the concept of Bad Faith in broad outlines,and discusses the emergence of the notion of Bad Faith in Sartre's writings (Nausea1938).It thus constitutes the first step in the examination of the development of the notion of Bad Faith in Sartre's thought between 1938 and 1952.The main conclusion to be drawn is that Bad Faith conceived as a lie to oneself, must be characterized in terms of two factors :one involving the experience of anguish , the other involving the attempt to flee this anguish.
Chapter II:concerns the role of negation in Sartre's views and lays the ground work for a better understanding of the relationship between negation and Bad Faith.Furthermore,this chapter explores the equivocations and difficulties involved in Sartre's treatment of negationas related to Bad Faith.The essential point to be noted is that the problem of Bad Faith is a problem about the self.Bad Faith is a conduct by which man attempts to flee from anguish in the face of the non-being of his freedom.Anguish is found to be the real immediate given of one's freedom.In Bad Faith man is in anguish in order to flee it.In attempting to escape awareness man falls into Bad Faith as he fails to fill the gap(nothingness)and introduces to the world another nothingness (non being of one's freedom).
