萨特说，生活始于绝望的另一边。
The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (d. 1980) called it ’bad faith’ [French, mauvaise foi], the habit people have of deceiving themselves into thinking that they do not have the freedom to make choices for fear of the potential consequences of making a choice.
哲学家让-保罗·萨特（1980 年去世）称其为“自欺欺人” [法语，mauvaise foi]，即人们习惯于欺骗自己，认为他们没有选择的自由，因为害怕做出选择的潜在后果。
By sticking with the safe, easy, default ‘choice’ and failing to recognize the multitude of other options that are available to her, a person places herself at the mercy of the circumstances in which she happens to find herself. Thus, the person is more akin to an object than to a conscious human being, or, in Sartrean terms, more akin to a ‘being-in-itself’ than a ‘being-for-itself’.
通过坚持安全、简单、默认的“选择”，并未能认识到她可以选择的众多其他选项，一个人将自己置于她所处环境的摆布之下。因此，这个人更像是一个物体而不是一个有意识的人，或者用萨特的术语来说，更像是“自在之物”而不是“自为之物”。
People may pretend to themselves that they do not have the freedom to make choices by pursuing pragmatic concerns and adopting social roles and value systems that are alien to their nature as conscious human beings, but to do so is in itself to make a choice, and thereby to acknowledge, even if only implicitly, their freedom as conscious human beings.
人们可能会假装自己没有选择的自由，通过追求务实的关切和采用与他们作为有意识的人类本性相异的社会角色和价值体系，但这样做本身就是一种选择，从而即使只是隐含地承认了他们作为有意识的人类的自由。
The Waiter Example 服务员示例
One example of bad faith that Sartre gives is that of a waiter who does his best to conform to everything that a waiter ought to be. For Sartre, the waiter’s exaggerated behaviour is evidence that he is play-acting at being a waiter, an automaton whose essence is to be a waiter.
萨特给出的一个恶意的例子是一个服务员，他尽力符合一个服务员应该有的一切。对萨特来说，这个服务员夸张的行为表明他在假装自己是一个服务员，一个本质是服务员的自动装置。
Sartre points out that, in order to play-act at being a waiter, the waiter must on some level be aware that he is not in fact a waiter, but a conscious human being who is deceiving himself that he is a waiter.
萨特指出，为了假装自己是一个服务员，服务员在某种程度上必须意识到他实际上并不是一个服务员，而是一个有意识的人，他在欺骗自己认为自己是一个服务员。
The lesson here is that, whenever we take up a social function, we need to be careful not to confuse this borrowed identity with our own. Our social function is often a convenient hiding place, but, if the boundaries are blurred, it can lead us to act against our own beliefs, principles, and interests—as often happens with politicians when they confuse means and ends, losing sight of the ends or ideals that, early on, drove them into politics.
这里的教训是，每当我们承担一个社会职能时，我们需要小心不要将这种借来的身份与我们自己的身份混淆。我们的社会职能往往是一个方便的藏身之处，但如果界限模糊，它可能会导致我们违背自己的信仰、原则和利益——这在政客身上经常发生，当他们混淆了手段和目的，忘记了最初驱使他们进入政治的目标或理想。
To kill a man is still to kill a man, even if we happen to be wearing a uniform.
即使我们碰巧穿着制服，杀人仍然是杀人。
The Young Woman Example
年轻女性的例子
Another example of bad faith that Sartre gives is that of a young woman on a first date. The woman’s date compliments her on her physical appearance, but she ignores the obvious sexual connotations of his compliment and chooses instead to direct the compliment at herself as a conscious human being. He then takes her hand, but she neither takes it nor rejects it. Instead, she lets her hand rest limply and indifferently in his so as to buy time and delay having to make a choice about accepting or rejecting his advances.
萨特给出的另一个恶意的例子是一个年轻女子在第一次约会时的情景。女子的约会对象称赞她的外貌，但她忽略了他赞美中明显的性暗示，而是选择将赞美指向自己作为一个有意识的人类。他随后握住她的手，但她既不握住也不拒绝。相反，她让自己的手无力而冷漠地放在他的手中，以便争取时间，推迟做出接受或拒绝他追求的决定。
Whereas the young woman chooses to treat her date’s compliment as being unrelated to her body, she chooses to treat her hand (which is a part of her body) as an object, implicitly acknowledging, or betraying, her freedom to make choices.
年轻女子选择将约会对象的赞美视为与她的身体无关，她选择将她的手（作为她身体的一部分）视为一个物体，隐含地承认或暴露了她做出选择的自由。
Conclusion 结论
For Sartre, people may pretend to themselves that they do not have the freedom to make choices, but they cannot pretend to themselves that they are not themselves, that is, conscious human beings who actually have little or nothing to do with their pragmatic concerns, professional and social roles, and value systems.
对于萨特来说，人们可能会对自己假装他们没有选择的自由，但他们不能对自己假装他们不是自己，即有意识的人类，实际上与他们的实际关切、职业和社会角色以及价值体系几乎没有关系或完全没有关系。
In pursuing such and such pragmatic concerns or adopting such and such social roles and value systems, a person may pretend to himself that he does not have the freedom to make choices, but to do so is in itself to make a choice, namely, the choice of pretending to himself that he does not have the freedom to make choices. Man, Sartre concludes, is condemned to be free.
在追求某些务实的关切或采用某些社会角色和价值体系时，一个人可能会对自己假装他没有选择的自由，但这样做本身就是在做出选择，即假装自己没有选择自由的选择。萨特总结道，人被判定为自由。
We cannot evade responsibility; if we try, we will become the walking shadow of the person we ought to have been.
我们不能逃避责任；如果我们尝试逃避，我们将成为我们本应成为的人的行尸走肉。
Neel Burton is author of The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide.
尼尔·伯顿是《失败的艺术：反自助指南》的作者。
