Bad faith is a form of belief, not a lie or certainty

Evidence

The true problem of bad faith stems evidently from the fact that bad faith is faith. It can not be either a cynical lie or certainty—if certainty is the intuitive possession of the object. But if we take belief as meaning the adherence of being to its object when the object is not given or is given indistinctly, then bad faith is belief; and the essential problem of bad faith is a problem of belief. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 315

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines bad faith by distinguishing it from both cynical lying (which remains aware of truth) and certainty (intuitive possession of the object), locating it within belief as adherence to a not-given object.
• XREF: Directly scaffolds the foundational backdrop to Beauvoir’s ethics — her working out of bad faith in The Ethics of Ambiguity builds on precisely this belief-not-lie distinction. — connects to: Bad faith also positively constitutes the self as what it is not — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 314; Bad faith requires a being that is not what it is, unlike inert objects — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 312; Bad faith exploits belief’s inherent self-undoing to install impossible beliefs — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 319 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Bad faith exploits belief’s inherent self-undoing to install impossible beliefs #expands (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 319
• Bad faith also positively constitutes the self as what it is not #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 314
• Bad faith requires a being that is not what it is, unlike inert objects #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 312