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Existentialist philosophy offers various perspectives, at times contradictory to one another. One view veers towards theism, another is pure atheism and yet another presents itself as humanism, but certain basic underlying tenets are common, where the term “bad faith” means a psychological phenomenon in which a person behaves in an “inauthentic” manner, against his inherent character and values, due to societal pressure.
In contrast ‘authenticity’ is when a person behaves in accordance to his desires and core values despite pressure otherwise to conform to societal norms. An individual is said to have the “free will” to make choices, barring extreme circumstances over which he has little control. Even then he can choose any one option over the others with this innate freedom.
German philosopher Martin Heidegger coined a term Geworfenheit
or “thrownness”, which means that an individual is thrown into this mindless world with all its attendant sufferings and trials. He opines that people forget to notice the fact that they are alive thus failing to ponder over the mystery of Das sein or “being”.
So, instead of mechanically progressing, an individual should search for the meaning of life.
Should life be led in an “authentic” manner or in “bad faith”? Should one exercise free will or follow the herd?
The Gita throws some light when Sree Krishna says that material existence is an impermanent ocean, full of miseries -- “ashaswatham dukhalayam” -- wherein one takes repeated plunges/births until the individual soul gets fully cleansed by conscious choice.
As such, human birth should strive towards shedding negative attributes in oneself by exercising one’s free will. Assumption of responsibility for one’s decision is complementary to free will and every individual should try to make choices that will not make him feel guilty later.
According to the French philosopher Sartre, “a person can be only defined negatively as what it is not, and this negation is the only positive definition of what it is”, and “Human reality is what it is not, and it is not what it is”.
Vedic philosophy says man is bound in destiny through each
one of his thoughts, words and actions. Human life span is
limited and one should constantly strive to experience the sat-chit-ananda reality of the eternal soul and
get released from Heidegger’s geworfenheit or the Vedic punarapi-jananam…