Leslie Stevenson has made a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion in this journal of Sartre's concept of 'bad faith'. He has the courage to advocate the heretical (but, as I see it, eminently sound) view that Sartre never intended the famous case of the waiter-the focus of so much recent attention in these pages-as an illustration of bad faith. Had Sartre intended it this way, he would surely have said so, and he could not have been clearer in explaining the point the case does illustrate in his view. More importantly, drawing upon key concepts in Being and Nothingness, Stevenson attempts to provide a clear Sartrean account of the phenomenon. I am in bad faith, according to Stevenson's analysis, when I reflectively deny what I pre-reflectively take to be true. 2 It is this latter point that I wish to discuss. This seems a quite promising suggestion, after all. After careful reflection, however, I think we are forced to reject it-not as a misreading of Sartre, but as a philosophical indefensible account of had faith. I want to take a few moments now to set out my reasons for this judgment.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.