Who Is Dostoevski's Underground Man Exhibit Bad Faith?
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In his book Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre discusses the notion of bad faith, which is defined as a state of self-deception. It is a pre-reflective consciousness of one’s own freedom, in which one tries to deny the fact that he is free and must make choices. Moreover, bad faith acts as a guardrail against anguish, which is akin to self-doubt and self-fear. There are several ways that a person can live in bad faith, all of which relate to the act of exercising freedom by denying it. A person is in bad faith when persuades himself on the basis of a mere belief, rather than knowledge, disturbs the balance between transcendence and facticity, and plays a role from which all choices are made and conditions are realized. With that given information, I argue that Dostoevski’s Underground Man exhibits bad faith because he bases his entire life off of the label that he is an intelligent man with an acute consciousness and, therefore, cannot be anything because he cannot make decisions. Bad faith is a form of self-deception that is rooted in some kind of truth because it involves a person lying to himself; the deceiver and the deceived are one in the same. Therefore, ironically, someone in bad faith is conscious of the fact that he lies to himself, as well as…show more content… He explains that the “most advantageous advantage” (68) is to be able to make decisions, yet he does not want to make decisions because he wants a ready-made vista of ideals that he can live by. He denies himself of the “most advantageous advantage” that he recognizes so clearly, highlighting the fact that he does not let himself be persuaded by persuasive evidence. He even doubts the laws of nature, denying the fact that “twice two makes four” (61). Even though that claim is a fact, the Underground Man will not accept it, just as he will not accept his freedom, because he lives in bad