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Sartre - bad faith [OT]

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On Sartre - bad faith:

" [someone working as a waiter] If there is bad faith here, it is that he is

trying to identify himself completely with the role of waiter, to pretend

that this particular role determines his every action and attitude. Whereas

the truth is that he has chosen to take on the job, and is free to give it

up at any time. He is not essentially a waiter, for no man is essentially

anything. "

(Leslie Stevenson, Seven Theories of Human Nature (1974) (Oxford University

Press, 1987)

 

this is bad faith ...?

 

so bad faith is about pretension ... what's that got to do with a 'desire to

be'? i doubt Sartre would have said that about a desire to be truly

compassionate...?

 

Z

 

 

> As Sartre would say of you desire to be truly compassionate,

> you are living

> in bad faith.

>

> Michael

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> so bad faith is about pretension ... what's that got to do with a

'desire to

> be'? i doubt Sartre would have said that about a desire to be

truly

> compassionate...?

 

Bad faith is denying your true nature to yourself. The waiter is a

free person and so by thinking of himself as one he is denying

that he is a person who chose to be a waiter. Where

compassion is something that you belive in, you then try to be

compassionate and in doing so deny that really you are a

person who chose to be compassionate. Everything we do is

the result of a choice, for Sartre you could be an evil person but if

you recognize that about yourself and remain true to yourself

then there is nothing wrong with that.

 

For Sartre it is meaningless to say that you should be

compassionate (why should you?) because there is nothing that

you should be other than what you choose to be. If you're

compassionate because that is how you are then that is okay, if

yo're compassionate because you're supposed to be then you're

in bad faith.

 

He probably doesn't even believe in compassion as it is just a

label for choices that implies an objective value when one does

not exist.

 

Does that make sense?

 

Michael

(Wondering whether this should have been called

VeganPhilosophyAndTheologyUK now)

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are you telling us not to be compassionate? because there is no need to be?

 

should i stop asking others to be compassionate ...

 

i don't have a desire to be compassionate... it is a direction in which i

am moving ...

 

> person who chose to be compassionate. Everything we do is

> the result of a choice, for Sartre you could be an evil person but if

> you recognize that about yourself and remain true to yourself

> then there is nothing wrong with that.

 

right .. so if someone is true to themselves and they recognise that and

they truly believe that they may kill another or animals should die to be

their food ... then there is nothing wrong with that?

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> are you telling us not to be compassionate? because there is

no need to be?

 

No, I'm telling you Sartre would say not to be compassionate

because you should.

 

> should i stop asking others to be compassionate ...

 

Tough call, you should be free to ask them, they should be free

to ignore you making it an empty endeavour.

 

> i don't have a desire to be compassionate... it is a direction in

which i

> am moving ...

 

Then Sartre would approve of you in his paradoxically non

judgmental way.

 

> right .. so if someone is true to themselves and they recognise

that and

> they truly believe that they may kill another or animals should

die to be

> their food ... then there is nothing wrong with that?

 

Yup. Sartre did try and create a morality into his existentialism

but was forced to reject it, I guess he wasn't too happy about that

but he was probably glad to get away from a Kant style

categorical imperative too. The same would have to go for killing

people, I'm not sure how he wouldd respond to that and I haven't

the time to check but it would certainly be difficult for him to argue

against murder.

 

It is hard to find a gray area between objective morality and a

lack of morality (such as Sartre's). Most people belive in the

former but practice a form of the latter with social rules added to

govern conduct. But from that you can say that it is wrong to use

animals.

 

Anyway my whole point in bringing up Sartre was not to use him

as a moralist but because he provides a lucid account of how a

person can be denying their true self, something true of anyone

who follows a particular dogma (or fragment) such as expecting

people not to hate, very much a case of fragmenting experience

between the acceptable and the forbidden, which is where this

all began many hours ago, although it seems much longer.

 

Michael

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---Our nature is not the nature it should be!,our nature's only hope

is to strive towards getting human to live in love,Our nature can not

be as it should be, until the planet is as it should be,We are

messing up its nature thus messing our own nature up!

Its our home for now so maybe we should treat it as such,at least

until we find other suitable planet to live on, even then in some

distant future when we look back at this planet burning in the

distance and think " Thank God we got out alive " those poor animal

eaters just wouldn't listen.our new home planet " heart " waiting,ready

prepared for us,to the east,takes five days to get there and when we

arrive on the sixth day God greets us saying welcome to my Garden you

are welcome to eat from any tree in the garden but not from the tree

of knowledge of good and evil because you are not ready to know evil

and will succumb to it! thus leading you into destructively short

lives,as you can not be allowed then to eat from the tree of life

commiting evil acts,We will then say ,If only we had listened the

first time we would have saved so much unnecessary misery, At least

now we know better!

SP,

 

 

 

, " mavreela " <nec.lists@m...> wrote:

> > so bad faith is about pretension ... what's that got to do with a

> 'desire to

> > be'? i doubt Sartre would have said that about a desire to be

> truly

> > compassionate...?

>

> Bad faith is denying your true nature to yourself. The waiter is a

> free person and so by thinking of himself as one he is denying

> that he is a person who chose to be a waiter. Where

> compassion is something that you belive in, you then try to be

> compassionate and in doing so deny that really you are a

> person who chose to be compassionate. Everything we do is

> the result of a choice, for Sartre you could be an evil person but

if

> you recognize that about yourself and remain true to yourself

> then there is nothing wrong with that.

>

> For Sartre it is meaningless to say that you should be

> compassionate (why should you?) because there is nothing that

> you should be other than what you choose to be. If you're

> compassionate because that is how you are then that is okay, if

> yo're compassionate because you're supposed to be then you're

> in bad faith.

>

> He probably doesn't even believe in compassion as it is just a

> label for choices that implies an objective value when one does

> not exist.

>

> Does that make sense?

>

> Michael

> (Wondering whether this should have been called

> VeganPhilosophyAndTheologyUK now)

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> No, I'm telling you Sartre would say not to be compassionate

> because you should.

 

hmm.. a man in the western tradition ... i wonder how he would get on with,

say, the Dalai Lama... or Confucius (were he alive)...

 

> > should i stop asking others to be compassionate ...

>

> Tough call, you should be free to ask them, they should be free

> to ignore you making it an empty endeavour.

 

i will continue then...

 

> Yup. Sartre did try and create a morality into his existentialism

> but was forced to reject it, I guess he wasn't too happy about that

> but he was probably glad to get away from a Kant style

> categorical imperative too. The same would have to go for killing

> people, I'm not sure how he wouldd respond to that and I haven't

> the time to check but it would certainly be difficult for him

> to argue

> against murder.

 

so we can't really use him to argue for or against doing anything ... so

long as that action is down true to oneself...

 

> Anyway my whole point in bringing up Sartre was not to use him

> as a moralist but because he provides a lucid account of how a

> person can be denying their true self, something true of anyone

> who follows a particular dogma (or fragment) such as expecting

> people not to hate, very much a case of fragmenting experience

> between the acceptable and the forbidden, which is where this

> all began many hours ago, although it seems much longer.

 

er... i don't expect people not to hate... in fact i expect people to

hate... this is not about my expectations of people... i am enquiring into

hate... and seeing whether it is relevant and to see whether it is

harmful... i want to understand it ...

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, " vegicate1 " <simonpjones@o...> wrote:

> ---Our nature is not the nature it should be!,our nature's only

hope

> is to strive towards getting human to live in love,Our nature can

not

> be as it should be, until the planet is as it should be,We are

> messing up its nature thus messing our own nature up!

> Its our home for now so maybe we should treat it as such,at least

> until we find other suitable planets to live on, even then in some

> distant future when we look back at this planet burning in the

> distance and think " Thank God we got out alive " those poor animal

> eaters just wouldn't listen.with our new home planet " heart "

waiting,ready

> prepared for us to the east of spiral milky way!and when we arrive

after five days travel;

> the sixth day God greets us saying welcome to my Garden you

> are welcome to eat from any tree in the garden but not from the

tree

> of knowledge of good and evil because you are not ready to know

evil

> and will succumb to it! thus leading you into destructively short

> lives,as you can not be allowed then to eat from the tree of life

> commiting evil acts,We will then say ,If only we had listened the

> first time we would have saved so much unnecessary misery, At least

> now we know better!

> SP,

>

>

>

> , " mavreela " <nec.lists@m...> wrote:

> > > so bad faith is about pretension ... what's that got to do with

a

> > 'desire to

> > > be'? i doubt Sartre would have said that about a desire to be

> > truly

> > > compassionate...?

> >

> > Bad faith is denying your true nature to yourself. The waiter is

a

> > free person and so by thinking of himself as one he is denying

> > that he is a person who chose to be a waiter. Where

> > compassion is something that you belive in, you then try to be

> > compassionate and in doing so deny that really you are a

> > person who chose to be compassionate. Everything we do is

> > the result of a choice, for Sartre you could be an evil person

but

> if

> > you recognize that about yourself and remain true to yourself

> > then there is nothing wrong with that.

> >

> > For Sartre it is meaningless to say that you should be

> > compassionate (why should you?) because there is nothing that

> > you should be other than what you choose to be. If you're

> > compassionate because that is how you are then that is okay, if

> > yo're compassionate because you're supposed to be then you're

> > in bad faith.

> >

> > He probably doesn't even believe in compassion as it is just a

> > label for choices that implies an objective value when one does

> > not exist.

> >

> > Does that make sense?

> >

> > Michael

> > (Wondering whether this should have been called

> > VeganPhilosophyAndTheologyUK now)

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> hmm.. a man in the western tradition ... i wonder how he would

get on with,

> say, the Dalai Lama... or Confucius (were he alive)...

 

I'm sure they would both say " Why do you fragment us into

Eastern and Western traditions and pit us against each other? "

 

Michael

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