Episode 9.08: Why neither truth nor fact can be determined by reference to external authorities.

Refusal to justify what we believe, think, do, say and how we live our lives with reference to external authority is one consequence of rejection of metaphysics, but also the basis for the way that we grow up into responsible adults each of whom plays a full part in the democratic life of a society. To pretend that we can in the end blame external authorities for what we believe, do or say, and how we live our lives is an example of what Sartre called bad faith, and it is also an infringement of the third principle of pragmatism.