Section II: Question 7

Radical Freedom

-a person is free from their past -their past does not determine what they are now -a person is free for their future, since what they are now does not determine what they will become -this testifies to the uncertainty and unpredictability of one's existence

Being-in-Itself

-defined as nonconscious or "inanimate reality" -the being of objects independent of consciousness, things independently real -subjects in this state of being have no awareness of themselves or things around them

Examples of Bad Faith

-first example: courtship -on a first date, suppose that a woman knows the intentions of her suitor: he wishes to seduce her. -to escape making a decision, she pretends not to notice when he takes her hand -second example: a waiter in a cafe -he goes about his movements too precisely; they are too rapid and eager -he escapes his freedom by playing a specific role, acting as if his essence is to be a perfect mechanism

Arguments against God's Existence

-first- the existence of a "God" would make freedom impossible -second-the existence of "God" is an existential impossibility

Being-for-Itself

-subjects in this state of being are conscious of objects and themselves -this way of being brings nothingness into the world -subjects have freedom from objects and causes -subjects have total freedom in its own existence -they have total responsibility for their own world -they experience anguish, and they escape into bad faith

Bad Faith

-what Sartre calls the attempt to flee from dread -defined as self-deception, a lie we tell to ourselves -two types of bad faith- denying freedom or responsibility and denying any determinism whatsoever -bad faith in its primary sense consists of an attempt to escape from one's freedom by pretending that all human affairs are unavoidable or necessary

Introduces Nothingness into the World

MAIN IDEA-brings about the awareness of possibilities, which introduces the idea of non-being -unlike inanimate objects, a conscious being can separate itself from its objects -it is aware of "possibilities"- of what could be but of what is not -they are the basis of all questioning and inquiry -asking a question means dissociating oneself from the object of inquiry -one must be able to consider the possibility of something being other than it is