Paradoxes of authenticity

a neuroscientific approach to personal identity

Luis E. Echarte

pp. 141-166

in: Aniceto Masferrer, Emilio García-Sánchez (eds), Human dignity of the vulnerable in the age of rights, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

In this chapter the author employs Antonio Damasio's frame about the three levels of the self in order to understand the general characteristics and dynamics of inauthentic experiences and its biological, social and intellectual bases. This approach also leads me to explain certain fundamental traits of the dynamic between so-called practical identities and moral identities. Parallel to this, I offer a model of how contradictory normative ideas can co-exist at the same level (horizontal dislocation or experiences of alienation) or at that of different levels (vertical dislocation or, strictly speaking, phenomenon of inauthenticity). The main conclusions are that (a) ideals and conflicts may be beyond conscious processing and (b) inadequate social inputs could damage the experience of subjectivity at each of Damasio's three levels. The third conclusion, which is derived from the second one, is that, at present, we used to underestimate the powerful effect of technology as well as others' opinions on our own system of values. This error (very frequent in individualistic lifestyles) is the major cause of IE and, ultimately, of the emergence of a growing vulnerable group.

Cited authors

Damasio Antonio