Authenticity as an Ethical Ideal

Authenticity as an Ethical Ideal PDF Author: Somogy Varga
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136508309
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Authenticity has become a widespread ethical ideal that represents a way of dealing with normative gaps in contemporary life. This ideal suggests that one should be true to oneself and lead a life expressive of what one takes oneself to be. However, many contemporary thinkers have pointed out that the ideal of authenticity has increasingly turned into a kind of aestheticism and egoistic self-indulgence. In his book, Varga systematically constructs a critical concept of authenticity that takes into account the reciprocal shaping of capitalism and the ideal of authenticity. Drawing on different traditions in critical social theory, moral philosophy and phenomenology, Varga builds a concept of authenticity that can make intelligible various problematic and potentially exhausting practices of the self.

Authenticity as an Ethical Ideal

Authenticity as an Ethical Ideal PDF Author: Somogy Varga
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136508309
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Get Book Here

Book Description
Authenticity has become a widespread ethical ideal that represents a way of dealing with normative gaps in contemporary life. This ideal suggests that one should be true to oneself and lead a life expressive of what one takes oneself to be. However, many contemporary thinkers have pointed out that the ideal of authenticity has increasingly turned into a kind of aestheticism and egoistic self-indulgence. In his book, Varga systematically constructs a critical concept of authenticity that takes into account the reciprocal shaping of capitalism and the ideal of authenticity. Drawing on different traditions in critical social theory, moral philosophy and phenomenology, Varga builds a concept of authenticity that can make intelligible various problematic and potentially exhausting practices of the self.

The Ethics of Authenticity

The Ethics of Authenticity PDF Author: Charles Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN: 0674987691
Category : Civilization, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
Everywhere we hear talk of decline, of a world that was better once, maybe fifty years ago, maybe centuries ago, but certainly before modernity drew us along its dubious path. While some lament the slide of Western culture into relativism and nihilism and others celebrate the trend as a liberating sort of progress, Charles Taylor calls on us to face the moral and political crises of our time, and to make the most of modernity's challenges. "The great merit of Taylor's brief, non-technical, powerful book...is the vigor with which he restates the point which Hegel (and later Dewey) urged against Rousseau and Kant: that we are only individuals in so far as we are social... Being authentic, being faithful to ourselves, is being faithful to something which was produced in collaboration with a lot of other people... The core of Taylor's argument is a vigorous and entirely successful criticism of two intertwined bad ideas: that you are wonderful just because you are you, and that 'respect for difference' requires you to respect every human being, and every human culture--no matter how vicious or stupid." --Richard Rorty, London Review of Books

The Ethics of Authenticity

The Ethics of Authenticity PDF Author: Charles Taylor
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674237129
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
Everywhere we hear talk of decline, of a world that was better once, maybe fifty years ago, maybe centuries ago, but certainly before modernity drew us along its dubious path. While some lament the slide of Western culture into relativism and nihilism and others celebrate the trend as a liberating sort of progress, Charles Taylor calls on us to face the moral and political crises of our time, and to make the most of modernity’s challenges. “The great merit of Taylor’s brief, non-technical, powerful book...is the vigor with which he restates the point which Hegel (and later Dewey) urged against Rousseau and Kant: that we are only individuals in so far as we are social...Being authentic, being faithful to ourselves, is being faithful to something which was produced in collaboration with a lot of other people...The core of Taylor’s argument is a vigorous and entirely successful criticism of two intertwined bad ideas: that you are wonderful just because you are you, and that ‘respect for difference’ requires you to respect every human being, and every human culture—no matter how vicious or stupid.” —Richard Rorty, London Review of Books

Authenticity

Authenticity PDF Author: Godehard Brüntrup
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3658296615
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Today, authenticity is considered an essential part of manifold interpersonal relationships, actions, and agreements. Authenticity’s association with sincerity, honesty, and reliability not only normatively charges the term in the context of social coexistence, but also makes it a demand which we impose on ourselves: The success of our lives is measured decisively by whether we live in harmony with our own convictions, wishes and needs. In philosophy, authenticity has also become the focus of interest, both in the context of the mechanisms of self-knowledge, as well as of personal development. The anthology aims to expand the cooperation across disciplines, in order to develop a comprehensive and profound understanding of authenticity, not by over-simplifying the highly complex subject, but by approaching the underlying concept from different scientific perspectives.

The History and Ethics of Authenticity

The History and Ethics of Authenticity PDF Author: Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350163465
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Addressing the post-enlightenment problems of meaning and freedom, Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth traces the historical development of the ethics of authenticity in a lucid and vigorous study. The emergence of authenticity as an ethical ideal is probed in relation to the rise of social freedom and individualism which opens up conversations and disagreements with the German Idealists, and later, Habermas, Foucault, and MacIntyre. Taking heed of these intellectual predecessors and proponents of ethical authenticity leads to an original conception of a socio-existential account of ethical authenticity, made possible by the work of both Taylor and Sartre. Moving beyond virtue ethics, discourse ethics and Foucauldian notions of self-care, The History and Ethics of Authenticity constructs a practical ethics of authenticity that is both embedded in and able to transcend the current moment. Making use of contemporary reference points, including the rise of social media, capitalist branding, and competing appeals to identity, authenticity becomes an achievable ethical ideal.

Against Authenticity

Against Authenticity PDF Author: Simon Feldman
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739182013
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
“Be true to yourself”—it is a dictum so ubiquitous that it can seem like both philosophical wisdom and an empty truism. Should we aspire to an ideal of living authentically? What does it mean to be true to yourself? Against Authenticity: Why You Shouldn't Be Yourself is a philosophical exploration and critique of the ideal of authenticity. Simon Feldman argues that if being true to ourselves is a matter of maintaining a strong will, being psychologically independent, achieving self-knowledge, or being morally conscientious, then the best lives we can lead should be expected to involve substantial inauthenticity. Feldman suggests that various construals of the ideal of authenticity presuppose metaphysically confused notions of the self (for example, that there is a determinate “true self”) and that under the guise of indisputable wisdom the ideal perpetuates both objectionably relativistic as well as reactionary moral thinking.Feldman concludes that the ideal of authenticity is one that we would be better off abandoning, independent of our other moral or ethical commitments. With implications for every reader's conception of authenticity and identity, Against Authenticity is an exciting challenge for students and scholars of ethics, metaethics, metaphysics, and moral psychology.

Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction

Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Thomas Flynn
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0192804286
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Sartre, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, and Camus were some of the most important existentialist thinkers. This book provides an account of the existentialist movement, and of the themes of individuality, free will, and personal responsibility which make it a 'philosophy as a way of life'.

Dialogic Life

Dialogic Life PDF Author: Stephen Loxton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781803699806
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor is best known for major studies on Hegel, for Sources of the Self (1989), a study of the development of modern identity, and A Secular Age (2007), based on the 1999 Gifford Lectures. The Ethics of Authenticity was originally given as a series of lectures on Canadian Radio, and entitled 'The Malaise of Modernity', and Taylor's concerns are to make a critique of modernity, highlighting worrying trends in the development of individualism and what he terms 'instrumental reason' and the subsequent 'loss of freedom'. For all his criticisms, Taylor also wants to retrieve the ethical theme of authenticity, seen in terms of people being true to themselves, but with a restored sense of life being dialogic in character, and lived against the cultural framework of 'horizons of intelligibility'. Written for those coming to the study of Charles Taylor's The Ethics of Authenticity (1991), Dialogic Life provides an introduction and guide to Taylor's thought and a commentary and review of the text. The opening chapter reviews Taylor's life and the development of his thought, and subsequent chapters (2-11) provide a commentary and guide to the ten sections of The Ethics Authenticity. The final two chapters discuss issues arising and offer conclusions on Taylor's work to retrieve and restore the ethical ideal of authenticity. Stephen Loxton retired from a 40-year teaching career in 2019. He now devotes his time to independent research and writing. He worked at a range of schools in the UK, including Millfield, The Godolphin School, and Sherborne School for Girls, where he ran a highly successful I.B. Philosophy course. He has written about twenty school timetables, run Philosophy and Religious Studies Departments, been a Deputy Headmaster, an ISI Inspector, and chaired the Salisbury Local Research Ethics Committee in the 1990s, approving the first clinical trials of the drug Sildenafil, later better known as Viagra. Dialogic Life is his sixth book. Previous books include three guides to topics for A level Philosophy of Religion, on Plato and Aristotle, Conscience and Religious Language. Words and Deeds (2018; revised edition in 2020) is an introduction to the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Nietzsche and the Old Flame (2021) is a study of Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals. In preparation is Proper Guardians, an introduction and guide to J.S. Mill's On Liberty.

The Paradox of Authenticity

The Paradox of Authenticity PDF Author: Eric E. Hall
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161538636
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
In this book, Eric E. Hall takes up the question of the meaning of a vigorously used concept in the liberal west: authenticity and the pursuit of personal originality. By uncovering this idea's uses within three deepening contexts - the ethical, the ontological, and the theological - the author unfolds authenticity's origins and implications. To the degree that authenticity seeks in all contexts freedom from social horizons, the conclusion renders attempts to embody this ideal secularly impossible. The goal requires a total transcendence that only the divine could fulfill. Human authenticity thus emerges in creatively imitating God's self-sacrificial expression on the cross, which both transcends and revalues the horizons of this world.

On Being Authentic

On Being Authentic PDF Author: Charles Guignon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134507682
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Thought-provoking and with an astonishing range of references, On Being Authentic is a gripping journey into the self. Beginning with Socrates and Augustine, Charles Guignon argues that being authentic is to have a sincere story to tell.