Thesis abstract:

«p»The concept of authenticity has come about as a result of the rise of the bourgeoisie at the mid of the eighteenth century, especially with the attempts to seek new social and political self-understanding and redefine themselves against the power of traditional social hierarchies of the ancien regime. Jean-Jacques Rousseau has arguably been the most important thinker articulating the concept of authenticity because he separated individual authenticity from spirituality. Rousseau flagged the inner voice that can best express his personal feelings and focused on the dichotomy between authenticity and inauthenticity in a secular rather than religious sense. However, his inner voice method of finding the true self devolved into his isolation in nature. My thesis aims to explore how the concept of authenticity has been reinterpreted since Rousseau and what it means in the contemporary West.«/p»