Contents

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: A prelude to the problem(s)

0.1 What is authenticity?

0.2 Why freedom, meaning and modernity?

0.3 A structural overview

Part One The problem and the resolution

1 The problem(s) of modernity

1.1 What is modernity?

1.2 Enlightenment: Maturity and freedom

1.3 Counter-Enlightenment: Nihilism and disenchantment

1.4 Embracing one’s fate

2 Variations on the concept of authenticity

2.1 Articulating authenticity

2.2 Alternative ethical ideals

2.3 The socio-e thical turn

2.4 Sartre’s existential authenticity

2.5 Taylor’s ethic of authenticity

3 Dimensions of socio-existential authenticity

3.1 What determines our sense of authenticity?

3.2 How can we ensure our ideal is achievable?

3.3 Where do our choices derive from?

3.4 What validates our choices?

Part Two Challenges for authenticity

4 Can the Enlightenment project be completed?

4.1 The project of modernity

4.2 Completing the project

4.3 Ethics or morality?

5 Is the ‘self’ a fiction?

5.1 The subjection of individuality

5.2 From power to subjection

5.3 Technologies of the self

5.4 Foucault’s Nietzsche

6 Are all modern ethics emotive?

6.1 Modern culture of emotivism

6.2 Emotivism and authenticity

6.3 Practices, narrative and tradition

6.4 Criticisms of MacIntyre’s virtue ethics

7 Finding meaning in freedom

7.1 Picking up the spear

7.2 Finding meaning in freedom

7.3 Can one be authentic within contemporary society?

7.4 Concluding remarks