Sophistry or Bad Faith?
Plato vs. Sartre on our Cultural Affliction
The ancients were well aware of our capacity to deceive. They gave us a word that we still use today, pseudos, from which we get pseudo-. Ancient philosophy is obsessed with arguments that are good vs. arguments that are manipulative. Being vs. Seeming is a distinction found not just in Plato, but in ancient tragedies.
But, to my knowledge, the ancients were less aware of, or less concerned with the issue of self-deception. Of course, Oedipus is blind to who he is, but not by choice. On the contrary, his quest for self-knowledge is what makes him a tragic hero.
Sartre popularized the term bad faith, though, to refer not to weak arguments we make outwardly, but to our very selfhood, insofar as we rationalize away our freedom and true beliefs.
In short, the ancients were worried about sophistry (other-deception). While the existentialists are concerned with self-deception.
Which do you think is the greater problem afflicting today’s discourse? Do you have a fix?
And what if the reasons for self-deception go far deeper than a weakness of will or a desire to conform to social norms?
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