Like Professor Manser (January 1983) I felt moved to comment on D. Z. Phillips's article on Sartre (‘Bad Faith and Sartre's Waiter’ (January 1981)); and the editor thoughtfully suggested that we should exchange our comments. We both agree, I think, that Phillips's concern over Sartre's alleged unfairness to waiters has led him to be unfair to Sartre, but whereas Manser is concerned to pursue in general terms the questions of sincerity and commitment I am more concerned to see the example, and the implications that Sartre draws from it, as showing the kind of writer he was and the view of the world that he held. It is this context that seems to me to be lacking in Phillips's article. He thinks that Sartre is unfair to waiters by over-simplifying their attitudes to their jobs, the ways in which they behave when doing them, and the satisfaction that they derive from them. He draws out of these specific comments some more general criticisms of the way in which Sartre over-simplifies the problems of choice: how much of our total personality we express in any particular choice that we make; and the degree of commitment that individual choices involve. All this is very reasonable, but he does not really get to grips with Sartre's concern.