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Today’s Agenda
Bad Faith
Good Morning!
Happy Tuesday, everyone. Just a friendly reminder: if there’s something you’re curious about and want covered on Thought Breakfast, we’re on Instagram, X, and Threads! Just shoot us a DM! Now let’s get into it.
Today we’re going to discuss “bad faith” through the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, a thinker I have yet to write about. Burning that off, we’re going to do a related thought exercise. Wrapping up with our Book Nook, we’re going to open up Sartre’s Being and Nothingness.
Let’s dive in, Thought Breakfast is served!
Today’s Breakfast
The Lie of Powerlessness
Sartre introduces the idea of bad faith, a subtle form of self-deception. It’s not lying to others. It’s lying to ourselves about our own freedom. We pretend we are fixed things rather than choosing beings. Sometimes, the easiest way to avoid responsibility is to act as if we don’t have it.
He describes a café waiter who performs his role a little too perfectly. His gestures are exaggerated and his politeness is rehearsed. It is as if he’s playing the part of a waiter. The point is that he’s not just a waiter. He is a free consciousness choosing to act as a waiter. When he reduces himself to the role, he denies his freedom. It may sound dramatic, but this is all of us in subtle ways. “That’s just my job.” Or “That’s just me.” Or “I don’t have a choice.”
Bad faith is what happens when we treat ourselves as fixed objects, hide behind personality labels, or pretend our circumstances define us completely. This is where Sartre’s uncomfortable claim comes in: You are always more than your role. Even when you don’t like your options, you are still choosing within them.
Burn Those Thought Calories
The Bad Faith Exercise
Ask yourself:
Where do I act as if I have no choice?
What role do I perform a little too perfectly?
What would change if I admitted I am choosing this?
Think about one “I have to” in your life and rephrase it as “I choose to.”
Book Nook
“We are condemned to be free. Condemned, because we did not create ourselves, yet nevertheless free, because once thrown into the world, we are responsible for everything we do.”
— Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness
Sartre’s calling freedom a condemnation because it cannot be escaped. Even refusing to choose, is still a choice.
Roles, habits, and circumstances may shape us, but they don’t erase responsibility. Bad faith is when we pretend otherwise.
Munch on that for today. Have a great day, and come back tomorrow for another steaming hot plate of Thought Breakfast!
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That’s it for today.
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Chef Ricky - Thought Breakfast
