pippo buono Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Are there any modern/post-modern thinkers that have written on authenticity/being authentic? The only ones that I can think of are Emerson and the Transcendentalists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Levinas kind of dealt with authenticity indirectly. You could probably say that authenticity would be a side effect of his ethical theory. Heidegger's Being and Time deals with the nature of 'being', which I think could be interpreted as an exploration of authentic existence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Thomas Legere. He's a catholic psychologist who likes to incorporate spirituality into addiction treatment. He wrote a book about living an authentic life. Probably not what you're thinking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catlick Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Charles Taylor has written extensively on authenticity. Taylor is a Modernist in ethics and political philosophy, but quite orthodox Catholic is metaphysical terms. Authenticity is a typically Rousseauian word. We Catholics do not believe in 'being true to one's nature as a unique person', but in 'being true to one's nature as a rational being and creature of God'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Era Might Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 What do you mean by authenticity? I'm reading Chuang Tzu right now, not a modern but an ancient Daoist text, and its idea of "authenticity" is to follow the Dao, the Way, but that doesn't mean being one thing, but simply living the Dao and being authentic within that. One of the stories is about a guy who says that if someone calls him an ox, he becomes an ox at the moment, if someone calls him a fish, he becomes a fish...why quibble with people about what you are, just be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippo buono Posted February 16, 2015 Author Share Posted February 16, 2015 Charles Taylor has written extensively on authenticity. Taylor is a Modernist in ethics and political philosophy, but quite orthodox Catholic is metaphysical terms. Authenticity is a typically Rousseauian word. We Catholics do not believe in 'being true to one's nature as a unique person', but in 'being true to one's nature as a rational being and creature of God'. Interesting. I'll look into Charles Taylor then. I guess I never specified, but I'm looking specifically for non-Catholic authors for the purpose of contrasting what they say to what the Church teaches. Thanks for the reminder on Rousseau, too. I think your distinction between Catholic and modern notions of authenticity is a little strong being that Catholicism does not oppose living out our nature as human persons to the unique identity each person has, but I'm pretty sure I understand what you're trying to say. In any case, Rousseau will also help with what I'm thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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