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Authenticity and Ideology AUTHENTICITY AND IDEOLOGY By LUKE GARROTT A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ABSTRACT v PART I: SYNOPSIS OF THE PROBLEM OF AUTHENTICITY AND IDEOLOGY 1 INTRODUCTION TO PART I 2 CHAPTERS 1 THEORY, IDEOLOGY, AND AUTHENTICITY 11 Theory and the Contemporary Academy 13 Ancient Theory and Practice 16 Ancient Theory and Myth 21 Critical Theory, Ideology, and Myth 25 Cultural Studies, Ideology, and Myth 39 Theory and Positive Ideology 55 Enter Authenticity 61 2 AUTHENTICITY AS AN EXISTENTIAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM . 64 The Problem of Authenticity in Historical Narrative: The Rise of the Modem Individual 68 The Enchanted, Pre-Modern World 68 Socio-Economic Change and the Problem of Authenticity 70 Authenticity in Enlightenment, Romantic, Post-Romantic, and Existential Thought 80 Enlightenment Authenticity: Mastery, Rationality, Detachment 80 Romantic Authenticity: Sincerity, Connection, Expression 88 Rousseau 90 Expressivism: Herder and the Poets 96 Nietzsche’s Post-Romantic Authenticity: Irony, Creation, Detachment 102 Heidegger’s Existentialist Authenticity: Disclosing Dasein 118 Everydayness 120 Inauthenticity 124 Authenticity 131 Truth, Ideology, and Authenticity 139 3 IDEOLOGY REVISITED 142 Marxian Ideology Revisited 147 Capitalist Deception and Domination 147 The Interpellation of the Althusserian Subject 150 Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, and Ideology 154 Husserl and Ideology. 154 Gadamer, Interpretation, and Ideology 161 Taking Stock of Situation: The Natural Attitude Revisited 166 Ideology’s Ontology—Toward a Heideggerian Ideology Critique 172 Moods 174 Modes of Care 176 Conclusion: Ideology Critique and the Aspiring Authentic 180 PART II: TWO CONTEMPORARY THINKERS ON AUTHENTICITY 183 INTRODUCTION TO PART II 184 4 CHARLES TAYLOR’S SINCERE AUTHENTICITY. 192 Ontology Matters—Taylor’s Holistic Individualism 194 The Liberal-Communitarian Debate: Ontology and Advocacy 196 Ontology and Transcendental Philosophy 200 Language and Fundamental Ontology 203 Taylorian Phenomenology of the Ethical Agent 212 Authenticity and the Good 214 Reading Oneself, or, the Hermeneutics of the Ethical Evaluator 220 Conclusion: Sincere Authenticity and Ideology Critique 227 5 RICHARD RORTY’ S IRONIC AUTHENTICITY 229 Irony and the Private Quest for Self-Creation 231 Freudian-Rortian Authenticity: Conversing with Ourselves 231 Nietzschean-Rortian Authenticity: The Strong Poet 235 Public Liberalism and Solidarity 243 Contingency, Ego-Splitting, and Ideology 250 The Hermeneutic Critique 250 Hermeneutics, Irony, and Ideology 252 CONCLUSION: SINCERITY, IRONY, AND CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS 262 Authenticity's Ontology of Agency: The Ironist and Sincerist at Work 265 Critical Consciousness and the Postmodern Mind 270 APPENDICES REFERENCES 280 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 286 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy AUTHENTICITY AND IDEOLOGY By Luke Garrott May 2001 Chair: Leslie Paul Thiele Major Department: Political Science This dissertation addresses the issues of being true to oneself, i.e., the problem of authenticity. It proceeds according to several convictions. First, we (post)modem Western subjects suffer an ongoing authenticity crisis, initiated by the collapse of social hierarchies of ascribed identity, frequent geographical displacement, and lifestyles increasingly emphasizing individual choice. The project’s first half summarizes philosophical reactions to the problem of authenticity from Descartes to Heidegger, arguing (secondly) that each of these philosophical formulations underestimates the central role of ideology to any aspiring authentic. Reformulating the Marxian definition of ideology to include hermeneutical and phenomenological insights, Chapter 3 shows that ideology not only subordinates the subject to dominant power but provides the subject with indispensable existential grounding. To recognize which power is enabling and which is exploitive is an essential, ongoing struggle for the aspiring authentic. The project’s second half investigates the theories of authenticity of two contemporary political philosophers, Richard Rorty and Charles Taylor, who offer competing accounts of authenticity. Taylor’s model is based in the hermeneutical mode of discovery, where the aspiring authentic must be sincere to its embeddedness in social, v ethical, and historical conditions it does not choose. Taylor advocates that we attune ourselves to our situation in order to become who we already are. Rorty, a postmodern, advances an ironic mode of authenticity that sees the subject’s promise in detachment and the restless search for novelty. Taylor’s and Rorty’s formulations, however, also ignore ideology, at the expense of the critical faculties of their aspiring authentics. The dissertation’s conclusion revisits the question of critical self-consciousness in terms of the controversy between postmodern and hermeneutical epistemologies. We ask whether it is possible to examine one’s situation in an immanent hermeneutical mode, or whether one must leave one’s situation altogether, as postmoderns insist, in order to gain any distance from it. The question is settled by a recollection of Taylor’s dynamic philosophy of language, which contends that one can manifest progressive self-knowledge through the steady re-examination and rearticulation of one’s commitments. vt AUTHENTICITY AND IDEOLOGY Luke Garrott 801-585-3722 Political Science Prof. Leslie Paul Thiele Doctor of Philosophy May, 2001 This dissertation is a theoretical discussion of the problem of authenticity, i.e. being true to oneself. In contemporary society, many people have more life choices than ever, no longer having their identity ascribed to them by family occupation and social status. Indeed, today it is difficult to avoid the ecstatic and frightening challenge of creating— or discovering— a self to be true to. This project first surveys philosophical responses to this problem, from the 17th to the 20th Centuries. It then compares the theories of two contemporary political philosophers who propose contrasting models for authenticity. Richard Rorty presents an authenticity of irony, a playful, artistic re- creation of oneself. Charles Taylor, on the other hand, prescribes a sincere mode where we discover who we already are. It is hoped that this theoretical discussion can help inform the existential struggles of the aspiring authentic in all of us. PARTI SYNOPSIS OF THE PROBLEM OF AUTHENTICITY AND IDEOLOGY INTRODUCTION TO PART I I think, my good sir, that it would be better . that the mass of mankind should disagree with me and contradict me than that I, a single individual, should be out of harmony with myself and contradict myself. —Socrates, Gorgias How you gon' win When you ain't right within? —Lauryn Hill Authenticity is the promise and curse of modernity. With increasing frequency, the modern human—the free chooser, the wage seeker, the frequent mover—must worry about "being true to oneself." Such a condition is concurrently liberation and obligation. As affluence spreads, and as race and gender exclusions in educational and employment opportunities diminish, fewer of us will able to avoid the ecstatic and terrible responsibility of finding and creating a self to be true to. There is no denying the vitality of the ideal of authenticity in the contemporary, affluent West. Americans jealously esteem such opportunity. Clearly, we are a country fond of individualism. Founded on the bold if ambiguous idea of Liberty, we believe in self-rule and inviolable individual rights. This ethic of individualism also has a powerful economic footing, animated by the seemingly inescapable force we call "self-interest." Contemporary social critics point out that in our “therapeutic” culture, we pursue a narcissistic self-assertion aimed at personal happiness and release at the expense of 1 commitments to others . Our “first language” is that of individualism, and more specifically, of individual rights. Self-fulfillment has eclipsed commitments to others, 'For an extended discussion of the currents and trends of American individualism, see Robert Bellah, et al„ Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (New York: Harper and Row, 1985 ). 2 3 while individual rights, claimed ever more vehemently, drown out requisite responsibilities. 2 Other large-scale forces—mainly economic—continue to dilute traditional community and family life. All of this conjures a powerful admixture of individualism to which we Americans are firmly beholden. All these forms of self-assertion, one might argue, spring from the impulse to be authentic. We insist on drawing up our own blueprint instead of having to live by someone else's design. Authenticity is a main theme of the American Dream, phrased in terms of the right to be oneself, where personal assertion wages war on Old World, pre-modem doctrines of ascribed status. Of course, in actuality we haven't achieved even a semblance of equality of opportunity. The freedom to be true to oneself depends too often on the privileges enjoyed by, or the chains burdening one's class, race, religion, gender, etc. Yet authenticity remains a central American ideal on the individual and collective level. Just as each individual wants to "be real," American democracy aspires to
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