How to Be Authentic

Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment

By: Skye C. Cleary

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

An illuminating introduction to the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir and its relevance to modern life

In an age of self-exposure, what does it mean to be authentic?

“Authenticity” has become attenuated to the point of meaninglessness; everyone says to be yourself, but what that means is anyone’s guess. For existential philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, authenticity is not the revelation of a true self, but an exhilarating quest towards fulfillment. Her view, central to existentialism, is that we exist first and then spend the rest of our lives creating—not discovering—who we are. To be authentic is to live in pursuit of self-creation and self-renewal, with many different paths towards diverse goals.

How to Be Authentic is a lively introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy of existentialism, as well as an exploration of the successes and failures that Beauvoir and other women have experienced in striving towards authenticity. Skye C. Cleary takes us through some of life’s major relationships and milestones: friendship; romantic love; marriage; children; and death, and examines how each offers an opportunity for us to stretch toward authenticity. While many people don’t get to choose their path in life—whether because of systemic oppression or the actions of other individuals—Cleary makes a compelling case that Beauvoir’s ideas can help us become more conscious of living purposefully, thoughtfully, and with vitality, and she shows us how to do so in responsible ways that invigorate every person’s right to become poets of their own lives.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Essentials.

©2022 Skye Cleary (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

I really tried to listen, but I had to return it

In this book (for as much of it as I could bear listening to) the struggle for authenticity is reduced to today's one dimensional oppresor/oppressed model of human affairs with the usual nervousness over forgetting to mention some team or another in the victim olympics. Beauvoir's complaints about the condition of women in 1940s France are applied without correction to the USA of the 2020s. Many ideas developed by Sartre are attributed to Beauvoir. Most distressingly, by focusing on societal oppression as creating the conditions for inauthenticity the book makes yet more glaring the great infantile flaw in vulgar existentialism: no matter how self-determined someone wants their life to be, no one is a god-like superhero who can invent all of human culture for themselves ex nihilo. Even the most creative and self-conscious person in the world must take many aspects of their beliefs, values, and personality "off the rack". Usually, it is not a system of oppression which leads people to accept societal beliefs and values. Rather, no one has the brains, creativity and leisure to invent all of these for themselves.