Description

The Search for Authenticity: Identity, Sincerity, and the Crisis of the Self

The Deeper Thinking Podcast

For those who wonder whether being true to oneself is an act of discovery—or invention.

We speak often of authenticity—as a virtue, a compass, a goal. But what does it mean to be “authentic” in a world saturated with influence, performance, and surveillance? Is the self something we uncover—or something we construct? This episode journeys through ancient ethics, existential dilemmas, and digital performances to ask: what remains of the authentic self when every identity can be optimized?

We explore the roots of authenticity from Aristotle and Augustine, through Rousseau, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, to Foucault and Byung-Chul Han—tracing how the search for self has become increasingly tangled in anxiety, contradiction, and critique.

Reflections

• Authenticity is no longer about being real—it’s about being seen as real.
• The more we perform sincerity, the more sincerity itself unravels.
• Some selves are curated. Others are coerced.
• To be authentic is to live without scripts—but we are drowning in them.
• Perhaps authenticity was always a myth. But myths still shape how we live.

Why Listen?

• Explore the origins of authenticity in virtue ethics and confessional traditions
• Reflect on the existential crises posed by Sartre, Heidegger, and de Beauvoir
• Engage with critiques from Foucault and Derrida on identity, power, and performance
• Ask whether authenticity in the digital age is even possible—or simply a more subtle simulation

Listen On:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts

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Bibliography

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Confessions
• Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
• Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
• Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
• Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality
• Byung-Chul Han, The Transparency Society

Bibliography Relevance

• Rousseau: Sees authenticity as a return to a natural, uncorrupted self
• Kierkegaard: Frames authenticity as a leap into personal responsibility
• Nietzsche: Urges radical self-creation as the highest form of authenticity
• Heidegger: Connects authenticity to mortality and choice
• de Beauvoir: Expands authenticity into the realm of ethics and freedom
• Foucault: Questions whether identity is ever truly our own
• Han: Warns that transparency has displaced truth with spectacle

Perhaps the search for authenticity is not about finding the self—but resisting the forces that want to define it for us.

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