Ortega y Gasset II, Bad Faith

Few philosophers develop an interest in the nature of hunting. Most come to hunting with an already formed view of human nature. Hunting can be used to illustrate or provide evidence for that view. But of course any independently developed philosophy of human nature may remain ambivalent with regard to hunting.

By way of example, one obvious criticism of Ortega y Gasset comes from those who share his philosophy of human nature: Hunting is the very definition of “bad faith.” To flee History is to deny ourselves the freedom and the responsibility to make ourselves what we are; to fall back into Nature, worse, to deliberately set out to become nature, is to identify with “things.” It is to use freedom to deny freedom. This vacation from the human condition is the height of irresponsibility.

Once the same view of human nature supports opposite positions, we can't help but wonder if the dualisms don’t obscure more than they reveal.