Sincerity and Authenticity (Harvard Paperbacks): 31 (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) - Softcover

Trilling, Lionel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674808614 ISBN 13: 9780674808614

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 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."--Times Literary Supplement

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 University Press
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 0674808614
• ISBN 13: 9780674808614
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200