Faculty First Year Seminars 197PHIL2 - What is Authenticity?
Fall
2014
01
1.00
Ernesto Garcia
TU 2:30PM 3:20PM
UMass Amherst
79679
What is the nature of the self? What makes us really us? Do we create ourselves, or are we just the products of our environment? What does it mean to be an authentic individual as opposed to an inauthentic person living in `bad faith?? Is there even a true self at all? This course examines the ideal of `authenticity?. The main text will be Charles Guignon?s On Being Authentic, which offers an insightful survey of classical and modern views about authenticity. In addition, we will read a few short literary works including Tolstoy?s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Kafka?s Metamorphosis, Sartre?s No Exit, and J.D. Salinger?s The Catcher in the Rye. Our main goal will be to explore what it means to be `authentic? or to be `true to ourselves? from the perspectives of literature, psychology, religion, and philosophy
Freshmen Only