Concept

Authenticity (philosophy)

Overview

Authenticity is a concept of personality in the fields of psychology, existential psychotherapy, existentialist philosophy, and aesthetics. In existentialism, authenticity is the degree to which a person takes ownership of their choices and identity, acting in recognition of their freedom and responsibility, rather than deferring that responsibility to social roles, norms, or external authorities. The conscious self comes to terms with the condition of Geworfenheit, of having been thrown into an absurd world (without values and meaning) not of their own making, thereby encountering external forces and influences different from and other than the Self. Authenticity has emerged as a central concept in contemporary models of well-being and the good life, serving as a foundational principle in many leading psychological frameworks. A person’s lack of authenticity is considered bad faith in dealing with other people and with one's self; thus, authenticity is in the instruction of the Oracle of Delphi: “Know thyself.” Concerning authenticity in art, the philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Theodor Adorno held opposing views and opinions about jazz, a genre of American music; Sartre said that jazz is authentic and Adorno said that jazz is inauthentic. Many musical subcultures require artistic authenticity, lest the community consider an artist to be a poseur for lacking authenticity (creative, musical, or personal); artistic authenticity is integral to many genres of music, including but not limited to genres of rock (such as punk rock and heavy metal), club music (such as house and techno), and hip-hop.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Romantic thinkers emphasized intuition, emotion, and a return to nature as responses to Enlightenment rationalism, anticipating later philosophical concerns with authenticity and individual self-expression. In the 20th century, Anglo–American preoccupations with authenticity centered on the writings of existentialist philosophers whose native tongue is not English; therefore, the faithful, true, and accurate translation of the term existentialism was much debated, to which end the philosopher Walter Kaufmann assembled a canon of existentialist philosophers. Kaufmann's canon includes the Dane Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), the German Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), and the Frenchman Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980). For these existentialists, the conscious Self comes to terms with existence (being and living) in an absurd, materialist world featuring external forces, e.g. Geworfenheit (Thrown-ness), and intellectual influences different from and other than the Self.

Personal authenticity is exhibited in how a person acts and changes in response to the external world's influences upon the Self. Among artists, authenticity in art describes a work of art faithful to the artist's values. In the field of psychology, authenticity identifies a person living life in accordance with their true Self and personal values rather than according to the external demands of society, such as social conventions, kinship, and duty.

To identify, describe, and define authenticity, existential philosophers like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger investigated the existential and ontological significance of the social constructs that compose the norms of society. For a journalist, not blindly accepting social norms contributes to producing intellectually authentic reportage, achieved by the reporter choosing to be true to their professional ethics and personal values. Yet, in the praxis of journalism, the reporter’s authenticity (professional and personal) is continually contradicted by the business requirements of corporate publishing.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

"When the authenticity of all these documents is accepted, we must now pass to the evidence of their authors' mission; we must know the laws of chance, and probability, to decide which prophecy cannot be fulfilled without a miracle; we must know the spirit of the original languages, to distinguish between prophecy and figures of speech; we must know what facts are in accordance with nature and what facts are not, so…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
Names Authenticity twice; opens on Authenticity.
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The proofs they have bequeathed to us are deposited in writings that themselves bear every trace of being untrustworthy. They are full of contradictions, revisions, and interpolations; where they speak of actual authentic proofs they are themselves of doubtful authenticity. It does not help much if divine revelation is asserted to be the origin of their text or only of their content, for this assertion is itself…
Sigmund Freud, The future of an illusion
States what Authenticity is; names Authenticity several times.
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There are no such things as antitheses; it is from logic that we derive our concept of contrasts--and starting out from its standpoint we spread the error over all things).
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Will to Power
States what Authenticity is; the author is tied to Authenticity in the knowledge graph.
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Authenticity (philosophy)

Overview

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Philosophers who discussed Authenticity (philosophy)

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