lying

A negative attitude directed outward at a transcendent truth, involving a duality between deceiver and deceived, and requiring full awareness of the truth being disguised.

1 chapter across 1 book

Being and Nothingness (1943)Jean-Paul Sartre

Chapter 2GT81

This chapter analyzes the concept of bad faith, distinguishing it from ordinary lying by emphasizing that bad faith is a form of self-deception where the deceiver and the deceived are the same consciousness. Sartre explores the ontological difficulties of bad faith, particularly how one can simultaneously know and hide the truth from oneself, and critiques psychoanalytic explanations that split the psyche to account for self-deception.