BECOMING
MORE AUTHENTIC:
THE
POSITIVE SIDE OF EXISTENTIALISM
Facebook Seminar
Authenticity means creating
our own comprehensive life-meanings.
When we re-center and re-integrate our lives
around our freely-chosen purposes,
we become more focused, unified, & decisive.
We resist enculturation and attain greater
autonomy.
This approach to re-structuring human life
was developed by several existential philosophers
and psychologists,
especially the ones discussed in this Facebook Seminar:
Camus, Sartre, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, &
Maslow.
A short presentation of Authentic Existence appears
here:
Becoming
More
Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism.
Authenticity is more a
structure
than a content.
We individually must choose our basic life-goals.
But perhaps sharing with other persons
who
are attempting
to become more Authentic
will help us to
make
the growth choices rather than the
safe
choices.
This Facebook Seminar will discuss Authenticity
as it applies to our own lives.
Over a period of six weeks,
we will read and discuss the following 19 chapters.
(Chapter
titles highlighted in blue
below
can be clicked to begin reading that chapter.)
PART I A
DEFINITION OF AUTHENTIC EXISTENCE
AND AN AUTHENTICITY
TEST
Week 1:
Chapter 1: From
Conformity to
Autonomy
Week 2:
Chapter 1: Centering
and
Integrating
PART II AUTHENTIC
PROJECTS-OF-BEING
Week 3:
Chapter 3: Creating
An
Authentic Project
Chapter 4: My
Authentic
Project-of-Being
Chapter 5: Helping Children Grow Toward Authenticity
Chapter 6: Authenticity Counseling
Chapter 7: Love Counseling
Chapter 8: Promoting Family Planning
Week 4:
Chapter 9: Liberation from Sex-Roles
Chapter 10: The Contemplative Life
Chapter 11: Companions for the Dying
Chapter 12: Working
for the Right-to-Die
Chapter 13: Other Projects
Chapter 14: Authenticity
and Occupation
PART III FIVE VERSIONS OF AUTHENTIC EXISTENCE
Week 5:
Chapter 15: Albert
Camus:
Rebelling Against
the Absurd
Chapter 16: Jean-Paul
Sartre:
Inventing Our Own
Meanings in a
Meaningless World
Week 6:
Chapter 17: Martin
Heidegger:
Confronting
Existential Guilt and
Death
Chapter 18: Søren
Kierkegaard:
Willing One
Thing
Chapter 19: Abraham
Maslow:
Becoming
Self-Actualizing
HOW TO JOIN THIS FACEBOOK
SEMINAR ON AUTHENTICITY:
You will need a regular Internet connection,
where you can receive and send e-mail at least once a week.
This could be either your own computer
or a computer you use at a public library, for instance.
You choose the time
and place for your electronic participation.
We will not attempt to have
everyone on-line at once.
Join our Facebook Group called
Becoming More Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/502195419811447/
There is no charge for joining this Facebook book-club.
Who else might be interested in reading and discussing this book:
Becoming
More
Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism?
Please invite them.
You set your own style of participation:
Either you can receive all postings and comments
immediately at your chosen e-mail address
or you can visit our Group on Facebook
to interact in writing with the other seminar members.
If you want to follow the discussion every week,
select your Notification as "All Posts".
Then whenever anyone writes a comment,
it will be posted on our Facebook Display
and sent by e-mail to each member who chooses this option.
If you would like to set aside a certain time each
week
for reading and interacting with others in our seminar,
you can either select a lower level of Notifications or Off,
which will mean you must decide
exactly when to visit our seminar on Facebook
to respond to the chapters being discussed that week.
See our schedule of chapters above.
Which would work best for the way you like to use
Facebook?
A Facebook Group has the additional
advantage
of being able to see the faces
of the other participants.
Class
discussion will require about 30 minutes per week.
The exact time devoted to this form of becoming more Authentic
will depend on how much we have to say in response to each chapter
and how many people join this Facebook Seminar.
We might have the most to say
when we write about our own quests for greater Authenticity.
You will need access to a copy of Becoming
More
Authentic.
Most
participants will buy their own copies.
The printed book costs $15 in either of two bindings.
Becoming More Authentic
is also available in PDF for $5.
(Extra
costs apply if postage and/or electronic payment is necessary.)
Others will borrow copies from libraries.
Reading might require less than one hour per week.
And you might
decide to do more background reading
in other books on Authenticity:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/B-AU.html
This Facebook Seminar is for serious persons willing
and able
to devote
meaningful time each week to reading and discussion.
This six-weeks electronic seminar will be
repeated
as new people discover this opportunity, obtain the book,
and request to join our Facebook Group on Authenticity.
OUR DISCUSSION BOOK: BECOMING MORE AUTHENTIC
<> The printed book for this on-line course
is Becoming
More
Authentic.
The complete table of contents will appear
if you click this line:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/AU.html
From this table of contents you can open
several pages of the book.
This book is available in two different
bindings:
comb binding or stapled binding.
This book is also available in PDF.
Write for details and to test your e-mail program
to see if you can receive a book in Portable Document Format (PDF).
OTHER OPTIONS FOR READING AND DISCUSSING:
Of course, it is always possible for anyone to read the book
without participating in the Facebook discussion.
Readers who live in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota
might have an occasional opportunity
to join a face-to-face discussion of Authenticity.
Our on-line discussion allows people living anywhere on the globe
to participate from their own keyboards and computer screens.
They might later join a face-to-face discussion of Authenticity.
Or it might happen the other way around:
People who have already taken part in a face-to-face gathering
might decide to join our Facebook discussions.
People who meet on-line in our discussions of Authenticity
might be able to create other face-to-face seminars
at other locations on the Earth.
And the book Becoming More Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism
could also be used in college courses on personal growth or existentialism.
It might also be relevant for students deciding what course of study to pursue.
"What is the meaning of my life?"
is a relevant question at many turning points during a human life.
What other ideas occur to you?
The world-wide discussion group will be modified to suit those who wish to join.
Send your questions, comments, and suggestions to me:
James Park, e-mail: parkx032@umn.edu.
Created
October 30, 2009; Revised 10-31-2009; 11-12-2009; 11-21-2009;
6-13-2012; 12-10-2013; 12-11-2013; 3-7-2015; 3-12-2015; 11-29-2016;