Bad faith requires a being that is not what it is, unlike inert objects
Evidence
If I were sad or cowardly in the way in which this inkwell is an inkwell, the possibility of bad faith could not even be conceived. Not only should I be unable to escape from my being; I could not even imagine that I could escape from it. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 312
Categorization
- DEFINE: The inkwell example crisply defines the for-itself’s mode of being against the in-itself — the key ontological contrast the book is built on.
- SHARE: The inkwell-as-inkwell image is the cleanest one-sentence articulation of the in-itself/for-itself distinction — worth sending to anyone teaching or learning Sartre.
- XREF: connects to: 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; Bad faith is a form of belief, not a lie or certainty — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 315; Bad faith’s possibility constrains what kind of being man must be.