Bad faith neutralizes doubt by declaring non-persuasion universal

Evidence

But bad faith is conscious of its structure, and it has taken precautions by deciding that the metastable structure is the structure of being and that non-persuasion is the structure of all convictions. It follows that if bad faith is faith and if it includes in its original project its own negation (it determines itself to be not quite convinced in order to convince itself that I am what I am not), then to start with, a faith which wishes itself to be not quite convinced must be possible. What are the conditions for the possibility of such a faith? — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 317

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The self-referential twist — bad faith universalizes non-persuasion as the structure of all conviction so its own weak faith can never be falsified — is a dense, self-sealing epistemic structure that rewards sustained thought.
• XREF: Sartre is doing something parallel to Aristotle’s or Husserl’s transcendental question (‘what are the conditions for the possibility’); the reader’s systematic backdrop reading can note this Kantian-Husserlian framing of the for-itself. — connects to: Bad faith exploits belief’s inherent self-undoing to install impossible beliefs — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 319; Bad faith operates by restricting another’s conduct to the present and refusing temporal meaning — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 291; Bad faith requires the for-itself to both be and not be what it is — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 313 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Bad faith exploits belief’s inherent self-undoing to install impossible beliefs #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 319
• Bad faith unifies being and nothingness in a single consciousness #expands (0.85)
• Bad faith requires the for-itself to both be and not be what it is #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 313
• Bad faith works by forming concepts that fuse facticity and transcendence without synthesizing them #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 292
• Bad faith collapses the deceiver and deceived into one consciousness #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 280
• Bad faith operates by restricting another’s conduct to the present and refusing temporal meaning #expands (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 291
• Bad faith involves performing a fixed role to deny one’s underlying freedom #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 505