Additionally, Chesire Calhoun, in “Standing for Something” reinforces Guignon’s final point that authenticity can be most fruitful understood as a “social virtue” (156) in which the personal undertaking of seeking to be and act authentically is “made possible by a social world in which certain democratic ideals have emerged.” Thus, “when the ideal of authenticity is understood in terms of its social embodiment [the ways in which we engage with the world] it is clear that being authentic is not just a matter of concentrating on one’s own self, but also involves deliberation about how one’s commitments make contribution to the good of the public world in which one is a participant” (Guignon, 163). Calhoun similarly argues that “integrity” can and should be seen as a social virtue for similar reasons:
Integrity calls us simultaneously to stand behind our convictions and to take seriously others' doubts about them. Thus, neither ambivalence nor compromise seem inevitably to betoken lack of integrity. If we are not pulled as far as uncertainty or compromise, integrity would at least demand exercising due care in how we go about dissenting. (260)Please think about these ideas and one or more of the following statements in relation to your service using other quotes and concepts from the text and specific illustrations from service:
From “Story-Shaped Selves”:
Guignon describes Charles Taylor’s views:
To have an identity––to be able to answer the question, ‘Who are you?’––you must have an understanding of what is of crucial importance to you, and that means knowing where you stand within a context of questions about what is truly worth pursuing in life…To have an identity is t have some orientation in what Taylor calls ‘moral space,’ where the term ‘moral refers to whatever gives meaning and direction to a life. (136).
From “Authenticity in Context”:
G. summarizes the philosophical views of Bernard Williams:
“It is only through the our social interactions that we become selves whose inner episodes are given enough steadiness and cohesiveness so that our relations to others can be built on cooperation and trust” (155)
Chesire Calhoun made a very good point. She claimed that an important aspect of authenticity is how we interact with the world. It can be easy to be one’s self when alone. Yet the way we interact with others can give us a deeper understanding of who we are. It seems to me that we are better able to know ourselves if we get to know others- how we are similar and how we are different. This idea was mirrored in Guignon’s “On being Authentic”. He questioned the tradition of authenticity as an individual virtue, not a social virtue. Guignon said, “…being a self that holds beliefs and honestly expresses those beliefs is made possible not by our having direct access to our inner lives, but by the processes of socialization and cultivation that transform us from chaotic, childish bundles…into mature adults…”
ReplyDeleteThrough volunteering at the MYC, I feel that I have matured quite a bit. It was a big responsibility to take on, but I met the requirements to the satisfaction of Jessica, my supervisor. On a deeper level, I gained, and continue to gain, a better access to my authentic self. I have had to give advice, and have been unsure what to say. In order to give good advice, I need to be in tune with my inner self so that I know what I would do in a similar situation. For example, one student told me that other students at school were being mean. I had to tell her what the best thing to do would be, and how I would react. I told her to repay the unkindness with a smile, but to let the teacher know what was going on. I then began to wonder if that is truly what I would have done. I did some self-examination because of this social interaction. This is how we become authentic—through interacting with others.
Charles Taylor made an important observation about authenticity. He advocated the importance of a “moral space”—in which “moral refers to whatever gives meaning and direction to a life”. This quotation also relates to my service learning experience. I have found that in surrounding myself with people that have good ideals, I have been able to strengthen and examine my own. It is good to get to know good people—people that would give up their time to help middle school children, for example. It is inspiring and motivation, but most importantly, it helps me find my “moral space”.
I loved the quote you posted: “It is only through the our social interactions that we become selves whose inner episodes are given enough steadiness and cohesiveness so that our relations to others can be built on cooperation and trust” (155). I felt like this so well summarizes what both Guignon and Calhoun were trying to say, and in a sense it is the basis upon which we are doing all of our service work.
ReplyDeleteIn "Standing for Something," Calhoun writes about the "What is worth doing?" question and says, "But given that the only way of answering the 'What is worth doing?' question is to plunge ahead using one's own deliberate viewpoint, one's best judgment becomes important" (257). I thought this was especially interesting in regard to my service work. There have been times when I have questioned whether it is enough, whether what I am doing is worth doing, if I am learning enough from it. Some days stuffing envelopes seems not as "worth it" as helping a kid with a math problem. Yet, I think in choosing this type of service, I was saying that what I really want to do is serve something that has served me so well over all of these years. So much of my life has been affected by growing up in ballet studios, and to spend a semester helping out at one is one way of showing my appreciation, in hopes that it will run a little smoother, and give those that work there more time to inspire kids to fall in love with dance like I did all those years ago.
Guignon quotes Taylor who wrote that, "My identity is defined by the commitments and identifications which provide the frame or horizon within which I try to determine from case to case what is good, or valuable, or what ought to be done, or what I endorse or oppose" (136). I believe service learning is a great opportunity upon which we can discover more about our commitments and identification. It provides a frame of reference in which we can view ourselves and begin to understand what we see as important and what we believe in. I know through mine I have realized the importance of not taking little things for granted, and for always saying thank you to those who are constantly working hard to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
It isn’t often that one comes across a word with so many problems associated with it. I started this book with the idea that being authentic was a generally a good idea and that as long as you didn’t go overboard whilst striving for that authenticity, you were doing something right. I spent a good portion of the center of this book confused, my mind struggling to grasp these highly theoretical concepts of how authenticity was achieved. I finished the book with a question. “Why does it matter?”
ReplyDeleteGuignon rounds out his discussion on authenticity with a few criticisms on the methods of becoming authentic. “Starting from an attempt to find meaning and fulfillment in life by becoming authentic, we end up with a disjointed, fragmented collection of semi-selves living out episodic, stuttering, and other directed lives” (Guignon 126). Does this mean that we’re not supposed to look for opportunities to be authentic, but rather let them come to us. I find this hard to believe because waiting for chances to come to you seems just as prone to inauthenticity as actively focusing on those chances. Either way, something is lost if a balance is not found.
He also cautions against planning out lives too closely, because, again, this puts blinders on humans. “In living out our lives, in contrast, we seldom know where our lives are going to go. The most we can do is envisage some range of goals and ideals and do our best to bring them to realization, leaving the rest to the contingencies of the real world” (Guignon 129). Obviously, planning out too far ahead results in missed experiences. These experiences add to an individual’s authenticity and if skipped over lead to a false sense of being.
Of course, there is no standard of “me”. Therefore, judging who is false and who is not, or who is authentic and who is inauthentic is a rather troubling task. And one that I personally believe should not be attempted. Even writing a book on authenticity approaches the realm of being inauthentic. While Guignon isn’t preaching to us about his own authenticity, which saves his work, I think that he really ended up talking himself into a circle. In his attempt to quantify a study that shouldn’t ever be forced into such limitations, he left me feeling rather disheartened. I don’t know what to consider authentic, or if an individual is even qualified to judge authenticity. The tragic part is that it wasn’t his goal at all.
This brings me back to my question. “Why does it matter?” Guignon comes close to answering it in his final paragraph, the only real glimpse that, I think, we see of the author. “I have tried to show that the ideal of authenticity, when properly understood has a valuable role to play in our lives. But I am trying to call attention to the dangerous one-sidedness built into the concentration on authenticity that can arise in certain areas of the self-help movement. What is problematic is not the idea of authenticy, but a narrow and obsessive concern with that ideal at the expense of other valuable ideals and orientations open to use in life”(Guignon 167). It matters then, because of a trend observed in society. Clearly, Guignon sees humans as addicted to striving for authenticity and is trying to warn us against falling prey to it’s pitfalls. He is not warning us against authenticity, but rather encouraging us to think things through and to look for that balance that exists to fully maximize our lives.
Guignon describes Taylor’s quote which refers to knowing yourself, what is important to oneself, and what gives meaning to ones life. It is essential for one to find importance in life in order to find meaning. This connects to the virtue, integrity. Integrity “involves the integration of “parts” of oneself—desires, evaluations, commitments—into a whole” (Calhoun 235). This is meaningful because often what we do in life is due to our desires and commitments. By evaluating and analyzing what we do in everyday life, we can then know what works for us and what doesn’t. For example if I go shadow a doctor in the emergency room and see all of the blood and pain a person has to go through, I may decide I don’t want to be a doctor anymore; so evaluations of what we do are important. They give insight to what is important to us and what isn’t. This integration of parts makes a whole of who we are.
ReplyDeleteA person with integrity stands against oppressions and does what their heart desires (Calhoun 239). It takes a lot of courage to stand up for what someone believes is right. When someone lacks integrity they lose who they are, self-respect and respect from others. As Bernard Williams says “To have a character, (a person must have strong feelings toward certain things that without them) one would not be able to find meaning in one’s life or have a reason for going on” (Calhoun 242). Everybody should have strong feelings toward something that they can’t live without. That’s part of what makes us unique, but at the same time unites us, because some people share the same strong beliefs. What we believe in, matters and it might help others find their true meaning and have integrity.
Even though integrity and self-respect are important, we as individuals are part of something bigger and our authenticity explains that, because we gather our authenticity from interacting with others. “We have the ability to shape an identity for ourselves by taking over those social interpretations in our active lives and knitting them together into a unique life story” (Guignon 127). This shows that interacting with others is important because we pick out what defines us and slowly connect these interpretations together to complete us. It is essential that people interact with others because they help define us, but “what matters is that you take ownership of your life” (Guinon 142). It is critical that we are in charge of our lives and not following the social norm all the time. Sometimes what is popular strays from what we want and later we can find ourselves in a place that makes us miserable if we follow everybody else. Our integrity also helps us define our authenticity which has two important components. The first is getting in touch with your inner self and the second is to express your true self that you have found by “self-reflection” in all your actions (Guignon 146). Using our integrity to be true to oneself is so critical that it can define us and can eventually bring us meaning and true happiness. At service learning, the students are slowly picking up interpretations from the people around them and building a unique character and life story. Especially there are a few students who stand out and already are unique, but I believe that part of going to school and the MYC is to help students realize their deepest desires and authenticity. Having both integrity and authenticity is essential for someone to live a stable and happy life.
In Standing for Something, Calhoun points out an example on page 259. "If an agent passes herself off as someone who insists on
ReplyDeletethe importance of private spaces and then secretly indulges in read-
ing another's private letters, the thoughts, "I have no self-control"
and "This is wrong," are different from the thought, "I have no in-
tegrity." Neither the weakness nor the wrongness of the act immedi-
ately reveals lack of integrity. Rather, the thought, "I have no
integrity," accompanies the revelation of one's inability to stand for
something before others. "
This example was the point in the article that allowed me to understand why integrity is a personal, as well as, social virtue. "One's inability to stand for something before others..." It shows that it is not only about taking sides, or forming principles and morals BUT standing for these issues in public and in the face of others.
A good summarizing quote stolen from Sarah: Guignon quotes Taylor who wrote that, "My identity is defined by the commitments and identifications which provide the frame or horizon within which I try to determine from case to case what is good, or valuable, or what ought to be done, or what I endorse or oppose" (136).
Through life, we face situations where we must take a stand. And we deal with people who try to dissuade us, trick us, bribe us or convince us to conform to their opinions. With integrity and authenticity, we find what is true to ourselves and defend it.
Concerning service-learning, I see alot of the students already have some sense of integrity. They defend what they believe, in their viewpoints, to be correct. Common street rules like "no snitching." They stand for and abide by these rules they made for themselves. Despite the trouble they can get themselves into or the constant pressure from other adults or kids, they stick to their rule. This shows integrity for them as personal and social virtues.
Personally, I do believe that MCCS helps me define myself more, from my past. It encourages me to take a stand on my own personal values and principles. Socially, MCCS helps my authenticity with the way I interact with others. It also allows me to show integrity when the values I hold are questioned or argued.
In "Standing for Something," Chesire Calhoun argues that the personal aspect of integrity is "not the whole story ... [because] [i]ntegrity calls us simultaneously to stand behind our convictions and to take seriously
ReplyDeleteothers' doubts about them" (27). We must take into consideration the social aspect of integrity in order to be truly authentic with ourselves. When we are alone, it is easier to define who we are, but when we are placed into various social circumstances, our true self is put to the test; society can push us to see what is really worth doing or standing up for.
Similarly, this idea is reflected upon in Guignon's last two chapters in "on Being Authentic." Guignon quotes from Bernard Williams, saying: "we need each other in order to be anybody" (155). From this idea, Guignon stresses the fact that social interaction is an essential part in discovering what is really worth doing in a person's life. It is necessary to be able to release yourself from the more personal aspect of authenticity to be able to see the bigger picture out there. When this is acknowledged, we can begin to understand that "what is at stake is not standing up for one's position or beating out one's opponent, but merging distinct horizons of understanding in order to reach an agreement about the truth of something that matters" (165) as a whole.
This final idea especially resonates within my service learning experience. Who I am, and how I conduct myself around not just performing my service learning tasks, but around my life in general, has a distinct effect on the society around me. As I have said before, we must take into consideration that we are not the only ones on this earth. In order to function in this world, we must learn to co-exist with everyone else, no matter how different or similar they are from you. With Marin Link, I have become more engaged with what I'm doing, not solely because I know that I am being authentic to myself in carrying out the tasks I do to the best of my abilities, but because I am making my impact on the world for everyone to see and learn from. This is how we learn. We learn from others things we cannot learn from ourselves. With this revelation, we begin to "focus not on what we can get out of a situation, but rather what we can contribute to the situation." (167). By balancing both personal and social virtues of authenticity, we can expect to lead the lives we are searching for, the lives that are worth living.
According to Calhoun, integrity is a virtue, “but it is less clear what is a virtue of or why we might prize it.” (pp. 235) She goes on to discuss three different views: the “integrated self view,” the “identity view,” and the “clean hands view.”
ReplyDeleteOne of her criticisms is that integrity is a “social” virtue more than it is a “personal” virtue.
“To have integrity is to understand that one's own judgment matters because it is only within individual persons' deliberative viewpoints, including one's own, that what is worth our doing can be decided. Thus, one's own judgment serves a common interest of co-deliberators. Persons of integrity treat their own endorsements as ones that matter, or ought to matter, to fellow deliberators.” (pp. 258)
She argues that a person of integrity acts as though she is a member of the community of “co-deliberators” that work towards the overall good of the collective. This co-deliberation would involve that person of integrity forming their own judgments on what matters to others instead of his or her own personal needs and desires. Integrity, then, can be made alike to social responsibility.
If we act on how we judge in relation to others instead of ourselves, then wouldn’t this lead to some complications? What if a person’s judgment is wrong? What if he or she fails to create the right judgment to resolve a problem in her community, according to the opinion of another person in the community? Then wouldn’t that individual trying to act with integrity instead just cause harm? Wouldn’t that be social recklessness, then? And although the person intended to do act with integrity, but still made an incorrect judgment, shouldn’t we say that person was not displaying integrity at all? For example, what if a person prejudiced against a specific race tries to act with integrity in a certain situation to best benefit his or her own race and in that process, the consequences of his or her own actions has an effect on another community of individuals of the race that he or she is prejudiced against? According to Calhoun, isn’t that person acting with integrity technically?
On a side note, I’d just like to say that integrity, like authenticity, seems very complicated to me once you start trying to analyze all the implications that it brings up.
Integrity, to me, seems to call on the individual to act with selflessness. It requires that we have a foundation of morals that are supposed to benefit the community, but the complication arises when people have different ideas of what is “morally good.”
Tutoring at MCCS made me realize that when we fail to act with integrity, the consequences of our actions reach out to people like a ripple effect. The students that I tutor are sometimes in and out of juvenile hall, smoking weed and doing other drugs in their free time, or continually have problems at home. My research question asked what caused these kids to end up here at MCCS? Were there any programs that could have benefited these students and prevented them from having to end up at an alternative school? Why were they doing drugs? Why were they skipping class? Why are there problems at home? People have failed to act with integrity and so we have the ripple effects. What was done or not done that these kids felt that they had to resort to drugs? Why are drugs so readily available to high school kids in the first place? What is the community doing to help those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds at home? Tutoring at MCCS makes me think. Thinking leads to action. Action can lead to change.
Integrity makes a person an individual. Integrity, according to The Journal of Philosophy “involves the integration of “parts” of oneself- desires, evaluations, commitments- into a whole. On the identity view, integrity means fidelity to those projects and principles which are constitutive of one’s core identity.” (p. 235) A person who has integrity does not aimlessly follow the others around them or adopt their friend’s or parent’s mindset without first considering what their view of life is. Having integrity means clearly defining what you stand for and what you believe and not giving in to peer-pressure or rejecting your beliefs out of threat. Oftentimes, the people who we admire most have an immense amount of integrity. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. continued to give speeches advocating equality even though he received many threatening letters and was murdered as a result of his beliefs. People’s unwavering commitment to what they stand for is admirable and heroic. Even going against the norms of society to do what is right takes integrity. Mother Theresa gave up all of her possessions and wealth in order to live a poor life in India where she devoted her entire life to helping the less- fortunate and the ill because that is where she found meaning and purpose. Having integrity does not just mean being honest, it is a way of life, and a difficult one at that, because there is so much societal pressure to conform in today’s world that people, especially teenagers, often sacrifice what they believe in order to ‘fit-in’. This is seen in all aspects of America’s society. People idolize the rich and the famous and adopt their styles and the people in those ‘high’ positions sometimes use their status as a tool to rally people behind a cause or behind a certain political party. At MCCS, the youth I work with often try to act ‘cool’ and fit-in with the others in class, which can lead to disruptive behavior. Part of my goal at MCCS is to teach the youth that they can make their own futures and do not have to follow the paths of others in their lives that do not lead to happiness or success. With a little determination, and the continued encouragement of the staff at MCCS, any of them could make a bright future for themselves. Having integrity is difficult, but one of the most wonderful things a person can possess in order to lead a life that is meaningful to them.
ReplyDeleteIn "On Being Authentic," Charles Guignon mentions a concept that the things we most value and matter to us are shaped through our social interactions. He says, "Being a self that hold beliefs and honestly expresses those beliefs is made possible not by our having direct access to ur inner lives, but by the process of socialization and cultivation that transform us from chaotic, childish bundles of transient response into mature adults with fairly well-formed, stable lives" (154). We learn most about ourselves not by looking within us or reflecting but by interacting with our society. Other people we meet influence our character and they help shape our understanding of things. They make us see things we would have never seen otherwise. Therefore we learn to express our ideas and beliefs not just by looking within our selves but by the relationships we build up among our lives.
ReplyDeleteA similar idea is presented in "Standing For Something." Chesire speaks about our integrity being influenced by our social virtue. She mentions, "Looking at integrity not as the personal virtue of keeping oneself intact but as the social virtue of standing for something before fellow deliberation helps explain why we care that persons have the courage of their convictions" (27). The best way to show our courageous integrity is by being able overcome the incredulous obstacles society places on us. As a result through these social circumstances we can figure out what is our purpose in life and what it is we think is worth doing.
These ideas correlate with my service learning at the MYC. As a tutor there I learned to work well with others and develop and understanding of the students ideas and views about life. For example last week I had the privilege of speaking with two female students. They shared with me personal stories that occurred to them recently. By being open and willing to listen, I learned new things I did not know before. I realized that there are things I have never thought about. As Guignon mentions about Williams that "We call our authentic self, at its deepest level something defined by society...it is only through our social interactions that we become selves" (155). Through others we learn to know ourselves more and learn new things about our life and our values in life.
In searching for ones "self," it is often easy to focus so much internally that one forgets about the outside world. However, in "Standing for Something" Calhoun makes the very interesting point that it is not who we are by ourselves but rather who we are in relation to others in society that is important. The following quote really describes the way one must know himself and carry these ideals over into society and the actual act of pursuing the ideals:
ReplyDeleteTo have an identity––to be able to answer the question, ‘Who are you?’––you must have an understanding of what is of crucial importance to you, and that means knowing where you stand within a context of questions about what is truly worth pursuing in life…To have an identity is t have some orientation in what Taylor calls ‘moral space,’ where the term ‘moral refers to whatever gives meaning and direction to a life. (136).
In reading this quote the first thing that came to mind was my service learning at the Marin Ballet School. In assessing who I am and what is important to me in life, I have found that I am most passionate about passion. I am so grateful to have found at such a young age the thing I am most passionate about, dancing. I want to help others find their passions and fulfill their goals and dreams. In working at Marin ballet, I am aiding the process of young children finding what could be their passion. While doing simple activities such as stuffing envelopes or filing papers, however, it can be easy to forget that even though I am not having a direct impact in these kids, I am helping them through a longer chain. In reading quotes and passages such as these, I am able to stay connected with these ideas.