Why Be Authentic?

Idealistic Studies 19 (1):16-27 (1989)
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Abstract

It is a commonplace of long standing that one should be “authentic” or—in expressions which may have an approximately similar meaning—that one should be “true to oneself” or that one should “lead a life of one’s own”. Duty and morality aside, this command to be “authentic” leads the prudentially-minded reader to ask, “Why? Why should I be authentic, or true to myself, or lead a life of my own? Will I, of necessity, be horribly unhappy if I am not authentic? Is not an inauthentic, but happy life, at least a conceptual possibility? And, if I can be happy though inauthentic, then why should I strive toward authenticity, especially since the psychological literature on this subject makes much of the considerable pain involved in this process?” It is not self-evidently clear, from the prudential point of view, why authenticity is desirable.

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Citations of this work

Whither authenticity?Ainsley J. Newson & Richard E. Ashcroft - 2005 - American Journal of Bioethics 5 (3):53 – 55.
Dosing dilemmas: Are you rich and white or poor and Black?Cynthia Griggins - 2005 - American Journal of Bioethics 5 (3):55 – 57.

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