The Quest for Authenticity

Excited to share our latest episode featuring a discussion with my colleague at Akita International University, Dr. Kyle Shuttleworth. We use his excellent book, The History and Ethics of Authenticity: Meaning, Freedom, and Modernity to center our discussion of the crucial, yet vexing, concept of authenticity. As becomes clear in the discussion, authenticity is simultaneously a dense philosophical terrain and something that persistently weighs upon the day-to-day lives we lead, or aspire to lead.

It is also a term that has been subject to multiple angles philosophical inquiry and dispute. Our discussion takes us through some of this history and provides the opportunity to think about how these debates intersect with our experiences of the here and now.

Lastly, below is a copy the 1818 painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by German Romanticist artist Caspar David Friedrich which is on the cover of the book and discussed at some length in the episode.