WJEC/Eduqas RS for A2/Yr2: Religion and Ethics (DRAFT)

WJEC / Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 2 and A2 Religion and Ethics

They, according to Sartre, create a self-deception; which he called ‘bad faith ’. Bad faith is the attempt, by human beings, to escape pain and anguish by pretending to themselves that they are not free. People try to convince themselves that their attitudes and actions are determined by their character, their situation, their role in life, or anything other than themselves. Sartre illustrated this point with the example of a cafe waiter. The cafe waiter’s movements and conversation are a little too ‘waiter-esque’. Sartre explains what he means by this: ‘The waiter’s voice oozes with an eagerness to please; he carries food rigidly and ostentatiously; his movement is quick and forward, a little too precise, a little too rapid.’ Ultimately, the cafe waiter is doing his job just a little too keenly; he is, according to Sartre, just ‘acting the part’ of the waiter. For Sartre, the waiter’s exaggerated behaviour illustrates that he is play acting as a waiter. He has become an automaton whose essence is to be a waiter, i.e. that this particular role of a waiter determines his every action and attitude. However, Sartre argues that the way the waiter is acting belies that he is ultimately aware that he is not merely a waiter, but is freely deceiving himself. Through bad faith, the waiter is denying his own freedom, by actively using this freedom itself to do so. The waiter ultimately knows that he is free and could give up being a waiter at any time, but freely denies this to himself. Therefore, for Sartre, bad faith is paradoxical in nature because when acting in bad faith, a person is ultimately aware they are free. According to Sartre, a person is not essentially anything they do not ‘will’ to be. Sartre is partly using existentialist theory for the above argument. Existentialism theory states that ‘existence comes before essence’; this means that human beings are not born with a particular predetermined nature, such as a predisposition to be a waiter, but human beings must create one for themselves as they go through life. People, such as the waiter, do this by responding to their experiences of the world, but they are not determined by them, since they are free to choose who they are and how they live. Therefore, Sartre is claiming that people are not simply what they conceive themselves to be, such as a waiter, but they are what they freely ‘will’ themselves to be. Sartre therefore rejects scientific psychology since it treats human beings as having a ‘positive being’, that is as a thing whose being is determined from the outside. For Sartre, a person determines their own being through the choices they make in the way they commit themselves for the future. However, he does not deny the inevitable contingencies of human life, such as where one is born or one’s upbringing or one’s physical characteristics. He refers to this as being thrown into life. But he argues ‘… though I am thrown into it, I do not just happen to be there. I grow in it.

Key quotes Life has no meaning a priori … It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose. (Sartre) We are our choices. (Sartre) Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. (Sartre) We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us. (Sartre) Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you. (Sartre) Once we know and we are aware, we are responsible for our action and inaction. We can do something about it or ignore it. Either way, we are still responsible. (Sartre)

DRAFT

4.23 What is meant by ‘bad faith’?

4.24 What example did Sartre use to illustrate bad faith?

I choose from it. I make it mine. … It is this place which thus enables me to engage with my surroundings and it is in these engagements that I become a person in my own right.’ Such inevitable contingencies may appear as a restriction but that is because of what the person has made of them. They are free to revise the choices they have made. If they complain about ‘my lot’ then they are in ‘bad faith’. In Sartre’s view, freedom is both a gift and a curse for human beings. The gift is that, a person always has the freedom of making something out of their circumstances. However, this comes with the responsibility that a person must shape their own lives. With total freedom comes total responsibility. Sartre believed that even those people who wish not to take responsibility for their actions, such as the waiter, are still making a free choice. Therefore, they are still responsible for anything that happens as a consequence of their actions or even inactions.

Key terms Bad faith: an attempt by people, to escape pain and anguish by pretending to themselves that they are not free Existentialism: existentialism theory states that existence comes before essence, i.e. human beings are not born with a particular predetermined nature, instead they must create one for themselves as they go through life

Sartre used the waiter illustration to demonstrate bad faith.

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