Why We Think the Things We Think

the way of truth and the way of opinion.

Why is there something rather than nothing?) are a clear influence on his thought

Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice, can alone entitle critics to this valuable character

The argument that humans are victims of pre-determined fate and subject to forces over which we have no control, such as class, race, gender and religion, is to live according to bad faith.

The value of life is measured only by the beliefs each individual freely chooses to apply.

This entails ascribing meaning to our choices and actions, and to defy the external imposition of meaning.

Bad faith is denial of free will on the grounds that we, like everything in the universe, are causally determined and thus we have no true freedom as we are merely victims of circumstance.

In order to live an authentic existence, Sartre suggested that individuals should be true to their own beliefs and ideas.

To live in bad faith is to deny that we are free and responsible for what we are and do, when in fact the very nature of existence determines that we are.

The concept of bad faith in existentialism echoes the Marxist idea of false consciousness; that is, the processes – material, institutional and ideological – through which capitalist societies control and manipulate the proletariat.