September 5, 2002

Chapter 1

Authenticity and the Sense of the Good

[URL: Chapter1]

The Sense of the Good

            I          Introduction to “good” [lower-case]

                        A         Other meanings of “good” [lower-case]

                        B         “Goods” or “needs”?

            II         The Good [Upper-case] as an Abstraction; its Self-regardingness; and its Moral Neutrality

                        A         “Goods”; “a Good”; “one of my Goods”

                        B         “My Sense of the Good”; “my Good”

                        C         The Good is self-regarding

                        D         The Good is morally neutral: the Good vs. the Right / Ethics vs. Morality

                        E         Origins of the Good

            III        The Good Is Individual and Specific

            IV       The Good Is One’s Autonomous Choice

            V         One’s Sense of the Good Is Malleable

            VI       “There’s No Disputing Taste”

            VII      Nevertheless, We Can Meaningfully Engage Each Other about Taste

            VIII     Engagement Can Change Either Party

            IX       The Münchhausen Trilemma and Our Inability to Prove That Something Is Good

            X         Conflict Between Goods

            XI       Are Goods Hierarchical?

            XII      The Internal Experience of Goodness, Beauty, Virtue, etc.

Personas, IROGs, and Authenticity

            I          The Problem of Pursuing Multiple Goods

            II         The Concept of a Persona

            III        Personas Are Fully Human

            IV       What Sort of Reality Do Personas Have?

            V         The Problems of Having a Multiplicity of Goods and Personas

            VI       Reconciling Conflicting Goods through IROGs [Internal Reconciliations of the Good]

            VII      IROGs Are Non-rational and Contingent

            VIII     The Concept of Authenticity

            IX       Case Study: Why Be Authentic? The Good of Authenticity

                        A         Two ways to understand the question

                        B         An unsatisfactory answer; a different question

                        C         The lived experience of authenticity and inauthenticity

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Therapeutic Discourse

            I          Issues with IROGs

            II         Senses of the Good Can Be Severely Unreconciled

            III        In a World of Respect for Each Others’ Goods, How Can Therapeutic Discourse Be Legitimate?

            IV       Therapeutic Discourse Is for Authenticity

            V         Therapeutic Discourse Can Be Useful

            VI       Therapeutic Discourse Can Be Necessary: Recovering Authenticity by Reconciling the Alienated Personas

            VII      Conditions for Therapeutic Discourse

                        A         Against some misuses and misunderstandings of therapeutic discourse

                        B         No fixed theory

                        C         Therapeutic discourse must be mutual

            VIII     No Guarantee of Success

Case Study: Multiple Personalities

            I          The Concept of MPD/DID

            II         Controversies

            III        Therapy