Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Analysing Authenticity: Explaining What it is to be True to Yourself and Why this is Good
My project is a conceptual analysis of authenticity that seeks to achieve reflective equilibrium with our considered judgments about authenticity. Given that we ordinarily take authenticity to mean “being true to oneself” and to generally be a good thing, I develop a philosophical conception of auth...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Philosophy
2021
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613277583835136 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mogomotsi, Olerato Kau |
| author2 | Hull, George |
| author_browse | Hull, George Mogomotsi, Olerato Kau |
| author_facet | Hull, George Mogomotsi, Olerato Kau |
| author_sort | Mogomotsi, Olerato Kau |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | My project is a conceptual analysis of authenticity that seeks to achieve reflective equilibrium with our considered judgments about authenticity. Given that we ordinarily take authenticity to mean “being true to oneself” and to generally be a good thing, I develop a philosophical conception of authenticity that can adequately account for the following questions: “What is it that we are being true to?”, “What does being true to oneself entail?” and “What is good about being authentic?” I take particular interest in Aristotelianism virtue Eudaimonism and how it can help in providing a tenable understanding of what authenticity is. In answering the first question, I seek to develop a modified account of Alasdair's MacIntyre's (1981) narrative unity of the self, which I term the Extrapolated Narrative Unity of Self [ENUS], as a tenable understanding of the self which we are being true to when being authentic. The ENUS, in short, is a configured narrative unity of self that combines an individual's actual past and present with their projected future self where the projected future self is a function of their telos. Thereafter, I will take being true to ones ENUS to be laden in the effort and wholesome commitment required for one to put into configuring, expressing, maintaining and reasserting the self. Finally, I argue that we ordinarily understand authenticity to be good because we generally take it to require and reinforce a virtuous life for the individual who is authentic. In addition, I argue that we generally understand authenticity to be good because of its inextricable link to a characteristically Eudaimonic life. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/33865 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:35.758Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | Department of Philosophy |
| publisherStr | Department of Philosophy |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/33865 Analysing Authenticity: Explaining What it is to be True to Yourself and Why this is Good Mogomotsi, Olerato Kau Hull, George Philosophy My project is a conceptual analysis of authenticity that seeks to achieve reflective equilibrium with our considered judgments about authenticity. Given that we ordinarily take authenticity to mean “being true to oneself” and to generally be a good thing, I develop a philosophical conception of authenticity that can adequately account for the following questions: “What is it that we are being true to?”, “What does being true to oneself entail?” and “What is good about being authentic?” I take particular interest in Aristotelianism virtue Eudaimonism and how it can help in providing a tenable understanding of what authenticity is. In answering the first question, I seek to develop a modified account of Alasdair's MacIntyre's (1981) narrative unity of the self, which I term the Extrapolated Narrative Unity of Self [ENUS], as a tenable understanding of the self which we are being true to when being authentic. The ENUS, in short, is a configured narrative unity of self that combines an individual's actual past and present with their projected future self where the projected future self is a function of their telos. Thereafter, I will take being true to ones ENUS to be laden in the effort and wholesome commitment required for one to put into configuring, expressing, maintaining and reasserting the self. Finally, I argue that we ordinarily understand authenticity to be good because we generally take it to require and reinforce a virtuous life for the individual who is authentic. In addition, I argue that we generally understand authenticity to be good because of its inextricable link to a characteristically Eudaimonic life. 2021-09-14T12:05:08Z 2021-09-14T12:05:08Z 2021 2021-09-10T08:52:27Z Master Thesis Masters MSocSci http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33865 eng application/pdf Department of Philosophy Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Philosophy Mogomotsi, Olerato Kau Analysing Authenticity: Explaining What it is to be True to Yourself and Why this is Good |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Analysing Authenticity: Explaining What it is to be True to Yourself and Why this is Good |
| title_full | Analysing Authenticity: Explaining What it is to be True to Yourself and Why this is Good |
| title_fullStr | Analysing Authenticity: Explaining What it is to be True to Yourself and Why this is Good |
| title_full_unstemmed | Analysing Authenticity: Explaining What it is to be True to Yourself and Why this is Good |
| title_short | Analysing Authenticity: Explaining What it is to be True to Yourself and Why this is Good |
| title_sort | analysing authenticity explaining what it is to be true to yourself and why this is good |
| topic | Philosophy |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33865 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mogomotsioleratokau analysingauthenticityexplainingwhatitistobetruetoyourselfandwhythisisgood |