Abstract
This project will produce a critique of neoliberalism by applying Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion of
authenticity. It also aims to add a novel argument in support of the academic consensus that
neoliberalism is a negative ideology, set of policies, and mode of reason. I will explain how
neoliberalism has become a mode of reason that is adopted by subjects, rendering them as
neoliberalites (Brown 2015, 35-6). This has had the problematic consequence of human
capital. Alongside Foucault, and Brown, I will argue this has caused the individual to treat
themselves as a micro-business that must be invested in so to advance themselves in the
marketplace (Foucault 2008, 225, Brown 2015, 130). The general criticism of neoliberalism
is simple and utilises a modified Sartrian position on authenticity. Sartre’s work will provide
the tools of analysis with which we can identify the failing of neoliberalism. Specifically, as
neoliberalism has matured into a rationality that its subjects adopt as modes of governance
(Brown 2015, 122), they become radically limited in the possibilities that they might imagine.
Furthermore, a neoliberal logic allows its subjects to solely imagine, motivating them even, to
engage with the world in a competitive manner. These effects are problematic and mean that
neoliberalism restricts our ability to engage with the world in good faith. In fact, it pushes
subjects toward bad faith, requiring them to subjugate the other for one’s benefit.