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Q.2. Do you think authenticity is more important than autonomy?
Authenticity is indeed a complicated concept that has so far been explicated and
understood in different ways. In this context, authenticity relates to how rational or logical
something is, how true it is and how genuine it is. When attributing to things, authenticity means
that something is unique and it is not a copy of another, it is genuine and faithful to the original
or it is reliable. When attributing to human beings, it involves genuinely and rationally being
your true self. The real world is not as we perceive it, therefore when our true selves interacts
with it we can develop an authentic relationship with the reality. Nonetheless, the way people
perceive reality as well as themselves determine their actions as opposed to reality (Guignon 67).
This is to mean that people’s view of the cause and effect relationships between inner and outer
selves is never based on reality.
For example, a passionate career woman who is also a meticulous mother who self-
sufficiently chooses to sacrifice her career and spends most of her time taking care of her child
can be said to be autonomous because she follows her own decision and free will to take care of
her child without letting her career goals and values control her (Guignon 160). On the other
hand, a young woman from a low class background who chooses to sacrifice her passion in
acting to become a successful yet unsatisfied engineer in a quest to live a materially comfortable
life can be said to be authentic. This shows that she does not act based on her own desires and
believes alone but those of her family and other people she has to provide for (Martin 50).
From this explanation, the difference between the two is that authenticity requires people
to act based on their motives, beliefs and desires to express who they really are while Autonomy
involves moral freedom of person to act on his/her own direction and not be controlled by
societal values and beliefs. This self-direction does not occur by chance but rather it follows ones
values and unique nature. Therefore, I don’t think that authenticity is more important than
autonomy because most autonomy decisions lead to authentic ones. In the first provided
example, a mother autonomously chooses to leave her career in order to take care of her baby
(Martin 60). In the first decision, she follows a direction that affects only her goals where she
does not let the beliefs of her partners or employees dictate her decision but in the long run, it is
authentic in that she considers her baby’s wellbeing when making the decision.
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Works Cited
Guignon, Charles. Being authentic. London: Routledge, 2004. Chapters 1 & 8.
Martin, Mike, W. Happiness and the Good life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Chapter 4