Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Sartre - Philosophy Bites review

For a while I was confused, when I listened to the last episode of Philosophy Bites. My common sense idea of 'bad faith' has to do with an unreliable person. But when Sebastian Gardner speaks of Sartre's idea of bad faith this is appears to be more about false consciousness, about wrong faith, misguided faith, rather than bad faith.

What the episode deals with is the human paradox of historicity and freedom, of social conventions and of choice. The bad faith lies herein that we assume our social role as identity, or our personal history as designating, or even our being non-committal at times. The paradox lies herein that we are neither completely free of the facts of our life, nor are we completely defined by them. Sartre's freedom of choice offers a very radical way of reassessing our own convictions, away from common sense as far as possible.

On the question whether Sartre is still a worthwhile philosopher to study, Gardner wholeheartedly agrees. Accessing the thoughts of Sartre seems something most appealing for the adolescent, but Gardner claims there is to be had for all ages.

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More Philosophy Bites
Idealism,
Alternative Hedonism,
Non-realism of God,
Virtue,
Nietzsche.

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