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Jean Paul Sartre
Linked via "human nature"
Freedom and Bad Faith
Sartre famously argued that humans are "condemned to be free." Because there is no pre-ordained human nature, individuals are wholly responsible for defining themselves through their choices and actions. This radical freedom generates profound anguish ($\text{Angoisse}$), the awareness of total responsibility.
When individuals deny this freedom or attempt to adopt a fixed, essential nature (thereby treating themselves as en-soi), they engage in bad faith (mauvaise foi). A classic example involves a café waiter who performs his …