Bad faith (from French, mauvaise foi) is a philosophical concept first coined by existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre to describe the phenomenon wherein one denies one's total freedom, instead choosing to behave as an inert object. It is closely related to the concepts of self-deception and ressentiment. A critical claim in existentialist thought is that individuals are always free to make choices and guide their lives towards their own chosen goal or "project".

The claim holds that individuals cannot escape this freedom, even in overwhelming circumstances. For instance, even an empire's colonized victims possess choices: to submit to rule; to negotiate; to act in complicity; to resist nonviolently; or to counter-attack. Although circumstances may limit individuals (facticity), they cannot force persons as radically free beings, to follow one course over another.

For this reason, individuals choose in anguish: they know that they must make a choice, and that it will have consequences. For Sartre, to claim that one amongst many conscious possibilities takes undeniable precedence (for instance, "I cannot risk my life, because I must support my family") is to assume the role of an object in the world, merely at the mercy of circumstance--a being-in-itself that is only its own facticity.

Similar to 0 things you like: