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.

Against Authenticity

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

Get Book Here

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.

The Ethics of Authenticity

The Ethics of Authenticity PDF Author: Charles Taylor
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674987691
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
“Charles Taylor is a philosopher of broad reach and many talents, but his most striking talent is a gift for interpreting different traditions, cultures and philosophies to one another...[This book is] full of good things.” —New York Times Book Review 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

Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, Volume 10: Against Apion

Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, Volume 10: Against Apion PDF Author: Flavius Josèphe
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004117911
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 503

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Book Description
This is the first English commentary on Josephus’ Against Apion, his apologetic treatise which rebuts Egyptian and Hellenistic slurs on the Judean people. Accompanied by a new translation, the commentary provides full analysis of the historical, literary, and rhetorical features of the treatise, and analyses its engagement with the cultural politics of the ancient world.

The Theological Imperative to Authenticity

The Theological Imperative to Authenticity PDF Author: Christy Capper
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000778886
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
From a theological viewpoint, this book explores the junction between the philosophical existential idea of the authentic self and its cultural appropriation. The text builds on the theology of John Macquarrie and the narrative formation of identity to construct a theological definition of authentic selfhood. It then contrasts this definition with the common idea that authenticity, in the moral sense, can be used to justify any action. The author argues that this is not genuine authenticity. Instead, they consider that authenticity rests upon loyalty to something greater than oneself, and for Christians this is the character of the God in whose image they are created and are being formed. This book is illuminating reading for students and scholars of theological anthropology, pastroral theology, ethics and moral philosophy.

The Authenticity Hoax

The Authenticity Hoax PDF Author: Andrew Potter
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 1551993473
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
One of Canada's hippest, smartest cultural critics takes on the West's defining value. We live in a world increasingly dominated by the fake, the prepackaged, the artificial: fast food, scripted reality TV shows, Facebook "friends," and fraudulent memoirs. But people everywhere are demanding the exact opposite, heralding "authenticity" as the cure for isolated individualism and shallow consumerism. Restaurants promote the authenticity of their cuisine, while condo developers promote authentic loft living and book reviewers regularly praise the authenticity of a new writer's voice. International bestselling author Andrew Potter brilliantly unpacks our modern obsession with authenticity. In this perceptive and thought-provoking blend of pop culture, history, and philosophy, he finds that far from serving as a refuge from modern living, the search for authenticity often creates the very problems it's meant to solve.

Critique of Authenticity

Critique of Authenticity PDF Author: Thomas Claviez
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1622738640
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
The volume provides a critical assessment of the concept of authenticity and gauges its role, significance and shortcomings in a variety of disciplinary contexts. Many of the contributions communicate with each other and thus acknowledge the enormous significance of this politically, morally, philosophically and economically-charged concept that at the same time harbors dangerous implications and has been critically deconstructed. The volume shows that the alleged need or desire for authenticity is alive and kicking but oftentimes comes at a high price, connected to a culture of experts, authority and exclusionary strategies.

Authenticity, Autonomy and Multiculturalism

Authenticity, Autonomy and Multiculturalism PDF Author: Geoffrey Brahm Levey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317535928
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The concept of "authenticity" enters multicultural politics in three distinct but interrelated senses: as an ideal of individual and group identity that commands recognition by others; as a condition of individuals’ autonomy that bestows legitimacy on their values, beliefs and preferences as being their own; and as a form of cultural pedigree that bestows legitimacy on particular beliefs and practices (commonly called "cultural authenticity"). In each case, the authenticity idea is called on to anchor or legitimate claims to some kind of public recognition. The considerable work asked of this concept raises a number of vital questions: Should "authenticity" be accorded the importance it holds in multicultural politics? Do its pitfalls outweigh its utility? Is the notion of "authenticity" avoidable in making sense of and evaluating cultural claims? Or does it, perhaps, need to be rethought or recalibrated? Geoffrey Brahm Levey and his distinguished group of philosophers, political theorists, and anthropologists challenge conventional assumptions about "authenticity" that inform liberal responses to minority cultural claims in Western democracies today. Discussing a wide range of cases drawn from Britain and continental Europe, North America, Australia and the Middle East, they press beyond theories to consider also the practical and policy implications at stake. A helpful resource to scholars worldwide in Political and Social Theory, Political Philosophy, Legal Anthropology, Multiculturalism, and, more generally, of cultural identity and diversity in liberal democracies today.

The Rhetoric of the Past in Demosthenes and Aeschines

The Rhetoric of the Past in Demosthenes and Aeschines PDF Author: Guy Westwood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192599119
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
In democratic Athens, mass citizen audiences - whether in the lawcourts, or in the political Assembly and Council, or when gathered for formal civic occasions - frequently heard politicians and litigants discussing the city's past, and manipulating it for persuasive ends. The Rhetoric of the Past in Demosthenes and Aeschines explores how these dynamics worked in practice, taking two prominent mid-fourth-century politicians (and bitter adversaries) as focal points. While most recent scholarly treatments of how the Athenians recalled their past concentrate on collective processes, this work looks instead at the rhetorical strategies devised by individual orators, examining what it meant for Demosthenes or Aeschines to present particular 'historical' examples, arguments, and illustrations in particular contexts. It argues that discussing the Athenian past - and therefore discussing a core aspect of Athenian identity itself - offered Demosthenes and Aeschines, among others, an effective and versatile means both of building and highlighting their own credibility, authority, and commitment to the democracy and its values, and of competing with their rivals, whose own versions and handling of the past they could challenge and undermine as a symbolic attack on those rivals' wider competence. Recourse to versions of the past also offered orators a way of reflecting on a troubled contemporary geopolitical landscape in which Athens first confronted the enterprising Philip II of Macedon and then coped with Macedonian hegemony. The work covers the full range of Demosthenes' and Aeschines' surviving public speeches, and the extended opening chapter includes synoptic surveys of key individual topics which feed into the main discussion.

Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed

Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed PDF Author: Alex Thomson
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826474193
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
One of the most influential philosophers and cultural theorists of the twentieth century, Theodor Adorno poses a considerable challenge to students. His works can often seem obscure and impenetrable, particularly for those with little knowledge of the philosophical traditions on which he draws. Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed is an engaging and accessible account of his thought that does not patronise or short-change the reader. Those new to Adorno - and those who have struggled to make headway with his work - will find this an invaluable resource: clearly written, comprehensive and specifically focused on just what makes Adorno difficult to read and understand.

Against Health

Against Health PDF Author: Jonathan Metzl
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814795935
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Looks at the cultural meanings of health, exploring it's ideologies, arguing that obtaining health is difficult because of cultural conventions, and offering ways to develop healthier options for one's body.