Sincerity and Authenticity (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) - Hardcover

Trilling, Lionel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674808606 ISBN 13: 9780674808607

Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr, 1972

Synopsis

"Now and then," writes Lionel Triling "it is possible to observe the moral life in process of revising itself." In this new book he is concerned with such a mutation: the process by which the arduous enterprise of sincerity, of being true to one's self, came to occupy a place of supreme importance in the moral life--and the further shift which finds that place now usurped by the darker and still more strenuous modern ideal of authenticity. Instances range over the whole of Western literature and thought, from Shakespeare to Hegel to Sartre, from Robespierre to R.D. Laing, suggesting the contradictions and ironies to which the ideals of sincerity and authenticity give rise, most especially in contemporary life. Lucid, and brilliantly framed, its view of cultural history will give "Sincerity and Authenticity" an important place among the works of this distinguished critic.

About this title

Review:

A beautifully written book, its tone admirably judged and perfectly sustained...It is wide fastidious and deeply thoughtful in its range of reference, Temperate, controlled and delicately scrupulous, it is a tribute if ever there was one to the "honest consciousness."

From the Back Cover:

In this new book he is concerned with such a mutation: the process by which the arduous enterprise of sincerity, of being true to one's self, came to occupy a place of supreme importance in the moral life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 0674808606
• ISBN 13: 9780674808607
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 200