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Wiktionary
bad faith

n. 1 (context legal English) A malicious motive by a party in a lawsuit. This has an effect on the ability to maintain causes of action and obtain legal remedies. 2 (context legal English) Intent to deceive or mislead another to gain some advantage; dishonesty or fraud in a transaction (such as knowingly misrepresenting the quality of something that is being bought or sold). 3 (context philosophy English) The existentialist concept of denying one's total free will.

Wikipedia
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 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, and the law.

Bad faith (existentialism)

Bad faith (from French mauvaise foi) is a philosophical concept used by existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to describe the phenomenon where human beings under pressure from social forces adopt false values and disown their innate freedom hence acting inauthentically. It is closely related to the concepts of self-deception and ressentiment.

Bad Faith (novel)

Bad Faith is a 2008 novel by Gillian Phillip. This dystopian murder mystery explores the role of religion in life and government. This is Gillian Phillip's first full-length novel.

Bad faith (disambiguation)
  • Bad faith is double mindedness or double heartedness in duplicity, fraud, or deception.
  • Insurance bad faith, a legal term of art
  • Bad faith (existentialism), a philosophical concept used by existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir
  • Bad Faith (novel), a 2008 novel by Gillian Phillip
  • "Bad Faith" (Law & Order), an episode of the TV series Law & Order
  • Bad Faith, a fictional rock band in the New Tricks TV series episode "Loyalties and Royalties"

Usage examples of "bad faith".

If bad faith is a symptom of barbarism, then those who plotted to lose us in an uncharted starfield are as barbarian as any race outside the Cluster.

There would have been argument enough and accusations of bad faith.

We used force because we appeared to have evidence they were negotiating in bad faith, and we published the diplomatic correspondence they'd falsified to prove our point.