Abstract
This chapter shows how Taylor’s notion of authenticity, Polanyi’s postcritical epistemology and Aristotle’s conception of actualization come together in a fruitful way. Lowney demonstrates how the subjective feeling of beauty or a “resonance” can plausibly indicate the existence of reality or of a personal ideal. He shows how three strands of modernity, represented by the Aristotelian traditionalist, scientific rationalist, and the subjective expressivist, all have something to contribute to a new modernity, and how each may find valuable insights in views that it normally opposes.
This chapter was originally published in The Pluralist 4:1, Spring 2009. It was developed from a paper titled “The Authentic Self as a Beautiful Work of Art,” presented at the 9th International Conference on Persons held in Asheville, NC, August 2007. I wish to thank Joe Velazquez of Stonehill College and the participants of the conference for comments and discussions.
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Lowney, C.W. (2017). Authenticity and the Reconciliation of Modernity. In: Lowney II, C. (eds) Charles Taylor, Michael Polanyi and the Critique of Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63898-0_5
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