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On Being Authentic
'To thine own self be true.' From Polonius's words in Hamlet right up to Oprah, we are constantly urged to look within. Why is being authentic the ultimate aim in life for so many people, and why does it mean looking inside rather than out? Is it about finding the 'real' me, or something greater than me, even God? And should we welcome what we find?
Thought-provoking and with an astonishing range of references, On Being Authentic is a gripping journey into the self that begins with Socrates and Augustine. Charles Guignon asks why being authentic ceased to mean being part of some bigger, cosmic picture and with Rousseau, Wordsworth and the Romantic movement, took the strong inward turn alive in today's self-help culture.
He also plumbs the darker depths of authenticity, with the help of Freud, Joseph Conrad and Alice Miller and reflects on the future of being authentic in a postmodern, global age. He argues ultimately that if we are to rescue the ideal of being authentic, we have to see ourselves as fundamentally social creatures, embedded in relationships and communities, and that being authentic is not about what is owed to me but how I depend on others.
Thought-provoking and with an astonishing range of references, On Being Authentic is a gripping journey into the self that begins with Socrates and Augustine. Charles Guignon asks why being authentic ceased to mean being part of some bigger, cosmic picture and with Rousseau, Wordsworth and the Romantic movement, took the strong inward turn alive in today's self-help culture.
He also plumbs the darker depths of authenticity, with the help of Freud, Joseph Conrad and Alice Miller and reflects on the future of being authentic in a postmodern, global age. He argues ultimately that if we are to rescue the ideal of being authentic, we have to see ourselves as fundamentally social creatures, embedded in relationships and communities, and that being authentic is not about what is owed to me but how I depend on others.
104 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 21, 2017
خیلی خوندنش رو توصیه نمی کنم..........زیاده گویی توش فراوانه
August 31, 2015
The book’s progression is helpful. The story of authenticity’s evolution clarifies what is at stake in the term's use and in the author’s reappropriation of it.
Guignon seeks to:
1. Explain what disconcerts him about self-help culture (a la Dr. Phil) and why it gets authenticity wrong—redeeming the term from popular misuse.
2. Spring board from Trilling's paradigm of authenticity vs. sincerity to deny the inner/outer dichotomy by virtue of constructionist and narrativist proposals that construe the self dialogically and assume subjective agency or responsibility. A reintegration of the inner self and the outer self reveals concern about the “self” to be a remnant of modernist hubris and romanticist narcissism.
3. Relocate authenticity in relation to social virtues that require concern for external norms. He does this by (a) highlighting the negative potential of the inner self and (b) conflating sincerity with authenticity (see 2. above). He argues the latter by suggesting that authenticity is both a personal virtue and a social virtue. The key result is a re-externalization of the "true and good" that authenticity sought in the first place.
4. Advocate late modern democracy as the external narrative that gives dignity to the concept of authenticity, thereby articulating one specific sociocentric vision of authenticity. (He defines other views of authenticity as theocentric, cosmocentric, and anthropocentric, but he fails to classify his own proposal. I think _sociocentric_ is a fair genus label for it, though the particular species of society he makes normative is _late modern liberal democracy_.)
Guignon's most important constructive moves seem to be the least elucidated aspects of the book. Despite dealing thoroughly with the importance of the self in most conceptions of authenticity, his is interest is not finally an accounting of the authentic self but a displacement of the self in an account of authenticity. This could be stated far more clearly and developed more programatically. The final chapter seems rushed and incomplete as a constructive proposal that pivots from the historical survey.
The author clearly appreciates and makes use of narrativist philosophy but fails to do justice to the fundamental difference between (a) narrating a responsible, coherent story and (b) getting in touch with the inner self. For example, he sees Sartre's gambling addict who wholeheartedly takes responsibility to stop gambling but relapses as proof that we don’t successfully choose a different story. Yet, this critique of narrativism fails to ask whether the addict has the ability tell an an authentic story about himself ("I'm an addict who struggles and remains responsible.") instead of making up an inauthentic story ("From now on I quit.")—and whether that ability is the basis for a new chapter in the story. Furthermore, he affirms that narrativist accounts cannot provide a “truth” criterion, yet he implicitly accepts the tradition of American democracy as the dialogical narrative context to which authenticity must attend (i.e., the external norm for the social virtue of authenticity). To do this, he substitutes the “dignity” of democracy for the "true and good" that the inner self once promised, without explaining how the new criterion was determined.
For Guignon, the (post)modern tortured by the questions of authenticity needs to stop worrying about whether her inner self and outer self align morally (since this is a false, modern conception to begin with), discern the social commitments and ideals that promote free society (since this is the external norm by which authenticity is dignified), take a stand for this good in society (as a responsible agent), and release herself to the social discourse (a notion of "releasement" developed from Gadamer). The number of problems this leaves open is tremendous, but essentially the attempt to construe authenticity as both a personal and a social virtue fails to examine what the personal virtue entails in the wake of postmodernism. The reason for this may be that developing the personal virtue over against the social virtue will point us back to a notion of inner and outer selves, which Guignon rejects reject. Nonetheless, the question remains whether it doesn't provide far more terminological clarity to use one word for the personal virtue (authenticity) and another for the social virtue (sincerity), if indeed they are different kinds of virtue as Guignon thinks.
Guignon seeks to:
1. Explain what disconcerts him about self-help culture (a la Dr. Phil) and why it gets authenticity wrong—redeeming the term from popular misuse.
2. Spring board from Trilling's paradigm of authenticity vs. sincerity to deny the inner/outer dichotomy by virtue of constructionist and narrativist proposals that construe the self dialogically and assume subjective agency or responsibility. A reintegration of the inner self and the outer self reveals concern about the “self” to be a remnant of modernist hubris and romanticist narcissism.
3. Relocate authenticity in relation to social virtues that require concern for external norms. He does this by (a) highlighting the negative potential of the inner self and (b) conflating sincerity with authenticity (see 2. above). He argues the latter by suggesting that authenticity is both a personal virtue and a social virtue. The key result is a re-externalization of the "true and good" that authenticity sought in the first place.
4. Advocate late modern democracy as the external narrative that gives dignity to the concept of authenticity, thereby articulating one specific sociocentric vision of authenticity. (He defines other views of authenticity as theocentric, cosmocentric, and anthropocentric, but he fails to classify his own proposal. I think _sociocentric_ is a fair genus label for it, though the particular species of society he makes normative is _late modern liberal democracy_.)
Guignon's most important constructive moves seem to be the least elucidated aspects of the book. Despite dealing thoroughly with the importance of the self in most conceptions of authenticity, his is interest is not finally an accounting of the authentic self but a displacement of the self in an account of authenticity. This could be stated far more clearly and developed more programatically. The final chapter seems rushed and incomplete as a constructive proposal that pivots from the historical survey.
The author clearly appreciates and makes use of narrativist philosophy but fails to do justice to the fundamental difference between (a) narrating a responsible, coherent story and (b) getting in touch with the inner self. For example, he sees Sartre's gambling addict who wholeheartedly takes responsibility to stop gambling but relapses as proof that we don’t successfully choose a different story. Yet, this critique of narrativism fails to ask whether the addict has the ability tell an an authentic story about himself ("I'm an addict who struggles and remains responsible.") instead of making up an inauthentic story ("From now on I quit.")—and whether that ability is the basis for a new chapter in the story. Furthermore, he affirms that narrativist accounts cannot provide a “truth” criterion, yet he implicitly accepts the tradition of American democracy as the dialogical narrative context to which authenticity must attend (i.e., the external norm for the social virtue of authenticity). To do this, he substitutes the “dignity” of democracy for the "true and good" that the inner self once promised, without explaining how the new criterion was determined.
For Guignon, the (post)modern tortured by the questions of authenticity needs to stop worrying about whether her inner self and outer self align morally (since this is a false, modern conception to begin with), discern the social commitments and ideals that promote free society (since this is the external norm by which authenticity is dignified), take a stand for this good in society (as a responsible agent), and release herself to the social discourse (a notion of "releasement" developed from Gadamer). The number of problems this leaves open is tremendous, but essentially the attempt to construe authenticity as both a personal and a social virtue fails to examine what the personal virtue entails in the wake of postmodernism. The reason for this may be that developing the personal virtue over against the social virtue will point us back to a notion of inner and outer selves, which Guignon rejects reject. Nonetheless, the question remains whether it doesn't provide far more terminological clarity to use one word for the personal virtue (authenticity) and another for the social virtue (sincerity), if indeed they are different kinds of virtue as Guignon thinks.
November 23, 2016
A decent but shallow introduction. The absence of any discussion of Kierkegaard is ridiculous, given that historically he's where the concept of authenticity originates in its modern sense. Instead Guignon unknowingly attributes to Heidegger what Heidegger appropriated, without attribution, from Kierkegaard. Also totally absent are Marx, Erich Fromm, Erving Goffman, and Adorno, the latter three being not exactly minor names on the subject.
December 27, 2021
I had to read this for a philosophy class, and while I feel smarter because I can talk about philosophers, this book hurt my brain so much. I don’t feel much closer to understanding what “authenticity” really is, and I now flinch every time someone says that word. This book just had too much content shoved in each chapter.
Currently reading
February 3, 2011I'm half way through it, and it's fascinating.
March 11, 2017
What is an authentic self?
Is it introspective? Is it extroverted?
Is it personal? Is it social?
Is it going to be a large part of my MA thesis?
Is it introspective? Is it extroverted?
Is it personal? Is it social?
Is it going to be a large part of my MA thesis?
March 1, 2022
I started reading this book because I’m on a philosophy kick, and I was doing research for a job in the professional development/executive coaching/self-help world. In that professional space, there’s much lip service given to finding “the true self” through introspection (and coaching), and I wanted to get clear on what we mean when we encourage one another to be authentic and dispense with the cultural and social baggage that supposedly impeded our ability to self-realize and achieve personal fulfillment.
This book takes the reader through the intellectual history of the concept of authenticity. The author asks: What does it mean to be authentic? How has this concept shifted over time? What is the connection between identity, individuality, and authenticity? What role does agency play in the pursuit of authenticity? Does a substantial self, distinguishable from the socially constructed self, lie within each person? Should we consider authenticity a social virtue and what would this look like? If your synapses aren’t firing after reading these questions, maybe this isn’t the book for you. It’s a fine, satisfying exploration of a concept that’s taken for granted and grossly glossed in within modern self-help discourse. Fun stuff.
This book takes the reader through the intellectual history of the concept of authenticity. The author asks: What does it mean to be authentic? How has this concept shifted over time? What is the connection between identity, individuality, and authenticity? What role does agency play in the pursuit of authenticity? Does a substantial self, distinguishable from the socially constructed self, lie within each person? Should we consider authenticity a social virtue and what would this look like? If your synapses aren’t firing after reading these questions, maybe this isn’t the book for you. It’s a fine, satisfying exploration of a concept that’s taken for granted and grossly glossed in within modern self-help discourse. Fun stuff.
March 10, 2019
I enjoyed reading different perspectives on what authenticity is, but I have a hard time accepting Guignon's at the end. How is this achievable in the society we live in? How can we be authentic with a flawed educational system and a society that continues to promote authenticity as an individual virtue, not a social one?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 4, 2022
This is an interesting, concise critique and integration of both the common notion of authenticity as the interior pursuit of one’s “true” self and the counter argument that the self is inherently socially constructed.
September 12, 2023
I'm on a philosophy kick and liked this a lot - trying to look more inside than out, knowing the real me. Really prepping for my Saturn Return - which feels insane to say out loud. A quick read for an introspective mood - would recommend!
December 13, 2023
What does it mean to be yourself? Why are we constantly fed with that message? Amazing to see that philosophy (albeit more so history) can still be impactful and accessible in the modern day. This introduced me to having a more narrativistically driven view on life and for that I am thankful.
October 5, 2022
did not convince me that authenticity is that important. tendency to evoke the superhealthy as the authentic individual. so what?
March 17, 2017
Read in college, for a course. I think everyone should read this book. Guignon asks really good questions.
March 7, 2011
Interesting discussion on the various perspectives and philosophies on the ideal of authenticity. Guignon does a good job at presenting and dissecting the different ideas of authenticity that have existed over time.
October 7, 2013
I enjoyed the conclusions of this book, but the writing was a bit arcane in nature. I'm not sure if it was the writer's style that bothered me or perhaps I was trying to read something profound too quickly.
April 8, 2010
Very interesting thoughts about identity and..being authentic with references to different historical times and also to well-known philosophers.
January 11, 2011
Accessible and valuable summary of the history of thinking re: everything re: authenticity re: human existence.
January 31, 2015
The book provides an interesting critique of existential nihilism, which lead me to the book I'm currently reading: The Conquest of Happiness.
February 11, 2024
this book makes you take a hard look at yourself and ask some serious existential questions.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews