Understanding Jean-Paul Sartre – What is Bad Faith?

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), French philosopher, novelist, playwright, political activist

Jean-Paul Sartre, author of Being and Nothingness, may very well be the most widely know philosopher of the 20th century. Understanding his philosophy, however, can prove to be challenging. But when broken down and explained clearly, it not only makes sense, but can be very meaningful for living life.

First some fun facts about Sartre:

• He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1964, but turned it down.
• He spent 9 months as a prisoner of war in 1940 (World War II) while serving in the French army as a meteorologist.
• He shares a grave at Montparnasse Cemetery with life-long partner and fellow philosopher Simone de Beauvoir.
• He was arrested in Paris, 1968 for civil disobedience, but was later pardoned by President Charles de Gaulle (de Gaulle stating, ‘You don’t arrest Voltaire’).

Key Concepts

In trying to understand Sartre’s philosophy, it helps to look at some key concepts and break them down bit by bit.

Here are some general definitions of the concepts discussed in this section:

Freedom:  Our freedom (to choose) constitutes us as humans; Freedom is our essential nature.
Responsibility:  With absolute freedom comes absolute responsibility; We are each responsible for everything we choose.
Anguish (angst):  The responsibility of life produces an overwhelming sense of anguish (angst).
Bad Faith:  A denial of our essential freedom; a form of self-deception.

All of these concepts are intimately connected, but what is essential to Sartre’s philosophy and existentialism, in general, is the idea of Freedom – our freedom to choose.

We are all free to make choices in life. In fact, Sartre defines freedom ‘as the definition of a man’. We choose our career, we choose our clothes, we choose what to eat, where to vacation, who to be friends with, etc.

This freedom is something that we cannot escape; we cannot not choose. Sartre famously says, ‘we are condemned to be free’. He says, ‘condemned’ because this freedom is not always something we want.

All through our life, we have no choice but to make choices. Even if I do not ‘choose’, I have made a choice.

We are our choices.

– Sartre

It follows that freedom brings a lot of Responsibility. We decide what to do in life and who we are by the choices we make. We are responsible for our own life and are exactly what we have chosen to be.

If you are unhappy about your life, you are the only one responsible. You can blame nothing or no one else – the choices have been yours.

According to Sartre,

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.

Responsibility & Anguish

Once we know we have freedom to choose and are the only one responsible for our life, we are often overcome by feelings of anguish (angst). Being responsible for everything in our life is simply too much to bear.

There are so many choices and we will always know that we could have chosen another path in life. We can rely on no one else and life offers us little help or guidance. This is Anguish (angst).

This is obviously an uncomfortable and unwanted feeling that we want to escape.

How do we rid ourselves of this responsibility & anguish?

Bad Faith

Bad Faith is a form of self-deception. It refers to behaviors we employ and choices we make that try to deny our freedom. It is in bad faith where we try to escape the responsibility of freedom and rid ourselves of the anguish we feel.

In Bad Faith we find ourselves living by labels or titles, and following rules and guidelines set by external entities. Anytime we make a choice that is based on some role we are playing or some label we are trying to live by, we are living in bad faith.

For example: a young man grows up in poverty and wants to attend university. He determines that it is not possible for him to do this given his circumstances. He accepts this label of poverty and denies his freedom to explore options in order to attend university.

Another example: a Catholic wife is unhappy in marriage, but refuses to divorce because of her strict beliefs in the church. She is playing a role and allowing the choice to be made for her.

It is oftentimes much easier and more comfortable to believe that our choices are determined by outside forces.  This way there is no decision to be made on our part (and we rid ourselves of anguish by believing we have no choice).

In Bad faith, we blame outside forces for our situation and the choices we make. We blame our parents for how we act as adults, we blame our children for holding us back from life, we blame everything from human nature to society to emotions to God.

We do anything to escape the responsibility and the reality that our life is exactly as we have decided it. Sartre says, ‘Man is what he wills himself to be‘.

When we live in bad faith, we claim victim and define ourself with labels (wife, student, poor, Christian, uneducated, widow, criminal, etc.).

For Sartre, this is the equivalent to living an inauthentic life. We are denying our freedom and therefore denying ourselves. We must face the reality that we can choose differently at any moment. We are not defined by a label or role.

It may be true that we are a mother or a wife or a widow, etc., but it is our choice to decide what those things mean to us. We can make a different choice at any moment.

Something to note here: Sartre does not suggest that our past does not affect who we are. One may say, ‘But it is true that I am a father and a husband, since I married and fathered a child’. This is undeniable and part of our facticity.

Facticity: Details about our life that cannot be changed. For example, the time and place of your birth, previous life choices, life events (death of your parents, for example), etc.

Our facticity is not something that we can change – not something we have choice over. Here are some examples of facticity: age, height, the death of family members, past choices made, eye color, etc.

These things are basically facts about your life, yet you are still responsible for deciding what those things mean to you – how you interpret them.

What does it mean for you to be a father? What does it mean for you to have lost a parent – that is, how will you let it affect your life? What does it mean that you are now in your 40’s?, etc.

We cannot escape choice. In order to live a life of value and authenticity, we must be true to ourselves and choose for ourselves.

Bad Faith is limiting, but the limits are what we choose.

Take responsibility; make of yourself what you will. You can make any choice; this is what is so inspiring about the existential philosophy. At any moment, you can choose to be something/ someone entirely different.

Think of yourself as an artist with a blank canvas. You can paint whatever you want on that canvas, it is yours to do what you will!

Read more about Sartre here.