The contents of this book represent the culmination of over a decade of philosophical enquiry and thought. Although I began this particular project as a doctoral student and brought it to completion as Visiting Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, many of the ideas contained within occurred to me prior to undertaking philosophy as an academic endeavour. My personal motive for studying philosophy was to come to terms with the modern world as a fluid, dynamic and shifting concept; to discover what it means to live well; and to understand my place within such a conceptual framework. With this book I have sought to satisfy these concerns by articulating modernity as a philosophical problem and the ethics of authenticity as a response.
Whilst this book may bear my name alone, human beings do not develop independently of one another. We are, rather, as I argue, dialogical beings who owe our identity to the many cultural contexts and communities to which we belong. With this in mind, it would be ignorant to believe that the completion of this book could have been achieved in isolation. First and foremost, I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my doctoral supervisors: Keith Breen and Cillian McBride. Both of whom pushed me in directions which I was initially reluctant to go and whose advice and encouragement made this project far more successful than I alone could have imagined or achieved. I am also obligated to the examiners of my viva voce, Jonathan Webber and Fabian Schuppert, who pushed me beyond my comfort zone, forcing me to think on my feet and testing the commitment to my ideal (which I hope was maturely conceived!)
I am simultaneously appreciative and apologetic to the audiences of countless conferences and workshops to whom I subjected work in progress and who offered valuable, and much appreciated, constructive criticism on early chapter drafts. The primary outlet for my research was the immensely beneficial Friday Ethics Workshop at Queen’s and its regular attendants: Cillian McBride, Keith Breen, Tom Walker, Jeremy Watkins, Josh Milburn, Hanhui Xu, Suzanne Whitten and Michael Whitten. I am also thankful to my friends and fellow members of the Sartre Society UK (Jonathan Webber, T Storm Heter, Maria Russo) and the European Network of Japanese Philosophy (Hans Peter Liederbach, Yusa Michiko, Inutsuka Yu, Morisato Takeshi), where I not only received valuable feedback on presentations but also developed many of my ideas during intervals and coffee breaks.
I also owe special thanks to Gaven Kerr who encouraged me to pursue doctoral research whilst I was still an undergraduate student, and whose friendship has endured as long as my formal philosophical training. Last but not least, I am grateful to my parents and grandparents: Margaret Shuttleworth, Alan Shuttleworth, the late Rita Parkinson and Joseph Parkinson – who encouraged and helped cultivate my intellectual curiosity. Finally, my best friend Sayaka Shuttleworth for her infinite patience and belief in my ability to bring this book to completion, especially when my own confidence began to falter.
皆さん本当にありがとうございました
K.M.J.S.