If There's No "Core Self" How Can We Be "Authentic"?
Sheila Heti writes about the term authenticity: “I don’t really understand what you’re being authentic to. The idea of authenticity is that there’s a fixed, certain central self that you can move closer to or further away from…”
Do you agree that authenticity presupposes the notion of a core self? What is authenticity without it?
Is the fact that we speak about being “true to ourselves” evidence that we have a core self or is it just a form of self-mythology and self-construction?
If self-deception (unconscious motivation) is par for the course of being conscious—and we can’t know ourselves—isn’t authenticity impossible?
Are philosophical objections to the notion of authenticity compelling and sufficient enough to make us aspire for something else? What should replace it?