Bad faith

Bad faith (Latin: mala fides) is double mindedness or double heartedness in duplicity, fraud, or deception. It may involve intentional deceit of others, or self-deception.The concept of bad faith is likely not capable of precise calibration and certainly has not been defined in the same way by all adjudicators. At its core, bad faith implies malice or ill will. A decision made in bad faith is grounded, not on a rational connection between the circumstances and the outcome, but on antipathy toward the individual for non-rational reasons...The absence of a rational basis for the decision implies that factors other than those relevant were considered. In that sense, a decision in bad faith is also arbitrary. These comments are not intended to put to rest the debate over the definition of bad faith. Rather, it is to point out that bad faith, which has its core in malice and ill will, at least touches, if not wholly embraces, the related concepts of unreasonableness, discrimination and arbitrariness.Good faith and its opposite, bad faith, imports a subjective state of mind, the former motivated by honesty of purpose and the latter by ill-will. Bad faith (Latin: mala fides) is double mindedness or double heartedness in duplicity, fraud, or deception. It may involve intentional deceit of others, or self-deception. The expression 'bad faith' is associated with 'double heartedness', which is also translated as 'double mindedness'. A bad faith belief may be formed through self-deception, being double minded, or 'of two minds', which is associated with faith, belief, attitude, and loyalty. In the 1913 Webster's Dictionary, bad faith was equated with being double hearted, 'of two hearts', or 'a sustained form of deception which consists in entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings, and acting as if influenced by another'. The concept is similar to perfidy, or being 'without faith', in which deception is achieved when one side in a conflict promises to act in good faith (e.g. by raising a flag of surrender) with the intention of breaking that promise once the enemy has exposed himself. After Jean-Paul Sartre's analysis of the concepts of self-deception and bad faith, bad faith has been examined in specialized fields as it pertains to self-deception as two semi-independently acting minds within one mind, with one deceiving the other. Some examples of bad faith include: a company representative who negotiates with union workers while having no intent of compromising; a prosecutor who argues a legal position that he knows to be false; an insurer who uses language and reasoning which are deliberately misleading in order to deny a claim. Bad faith may be viewed in some cases to not involve deception, as in some kinds of hypochondria with actual physical manifestations. There is a question about the truth or falsity of statements made in bad faith self-deception; for example, if a hypochondriac makes a complaint about their psychosomatic condition, is it true or false? Bad faith has been used as a term of art in diverse areas involving feminism, racial supremacism, political negotiation, insurance claims processing, intentionality, ethics, existentialism, climate change denial, and the law. In ordinary usage, bad faith is equated with being of 'two hearts', or 'a sustained form of deception which consists in entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings, and acting as if influenced by another', and is synonymous with double mindedness, with disloyalty, double dealing, hypocrisy, infidelity, breach of contract, unfaithfulness, pharisaism (emphasizing or observing the letter but not the spirit of the law, see Doctrine of absurdity), tartuffery (a show or expression of feelings or beliefs one does not actually hold or possess), affectation, bigotry, and lip service. People may hold beliefs in their minds even though they are directly contradicted by facts. These are beliefs held in bad faith. But there is debate as to whether this self-deception is intentional or not. In his book Being and Nothingness, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre defined bad faith (French: mauvaise foi) as hiding the truth from oneself. The fundamental question about bad faith self-deception is how it is possible. In order for a liar to successfully lie to the victim of the lie, the liar must know that what is being said is false. In order to be successful at lying, the victim must believe the lie to be true. When a person is in bad faith self-deception, the person is both the liar and the victim of the lie. So at the same time the liar, as liar, believes the lie to be false, and as victim believes it to be true. So there is a contradiction in that a person in bad faith self-deception believes something to be true and false at the same time. Sartre observed that 'the one to whom the lie is told and the one who lies are one and the same person, which means that I must know the truth in my capacity as deceiver, though it is hidden from me in my capacity as the one deceived', adding that 'I must know that truth very precisely, in order to hide it from myself the more carefully—and this not at two different moments of temporality ...' Various commentators and translators have discussed being of two beliefs or faiths in being double hearted or double minded. Webster's Dictionary equates bad faith with 'being of two hearts'. 'Double hearted' is translated also as 'double minded', or 'of two hearts' or 'of two minds' or souls, two beliefs, two attitudes, two loyalties, two thinkings, two beliefs, or being as two souls at the same time. The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament Epistles admonish religious believers not to be double minded. In Psalms 119:113, one translation is 'I hate double-minded men, but I love your law.' The New Living Translation emphasises divided loyalty translating the passage as 'I hate those with divided loyalties, but I love your instructions.'