Howard Pickett - Rethinking Sincerity and Authenticity: The Ethics of Theatricality in Kant, Kierkegaard, and Levinas

STUDIES IN RELIGION AND CULTURE

John D. Barbour and Gary L. Ebersole, Editors

University of Virginia Press

2017 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

First published 2017

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Pickett, Howard, 1973 author.

Title: Rethinking sincerity and authenticity : the ethics of theatricality in Kant, Kierkegaard, and Levinas / Howard Pickett.

Description: Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2017. | Series: Studies in religion and culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017011907 | ISBN 9780813940151 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780813940168 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Authenticity (Philosophy) | Performance. | Sincerity. | TheaterMoral and ethical aspects. | Kant, Immanuel, 17241804. | Kierkegaard, Sren, 18131855. | Levinas, Emmanuel.

Classification: LCC B105.A8 P53 2017 | DDC 170.92/2dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011907

Cover art: Flayed man holding his own skin, attributed to Gaspar Becerra, from Juan Valverde de Amusco, Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano, 1556

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NEEDLESS TO SAY, this book could not have been written without the support of others. Thanks to my former teachers, especially Larry D. Bouchard, James F. Childress, M. Jamie Ferreira, and Steven G. Smith. For input on earlier drafts or arguments, thanks to Eric Brandt, Talbot Brewer, Jonathan Eastwood, Nathaniel Goldberg, Jacob Goodson, Peter Kang, Hank Koransky, Jeffrey Kosky, Charles Lowney, James Mahon, Charles Mathewes, Margaret Mohrmann, Richard Rosengarten, Angela Smith, Daniel Weiss, and two anonymous readers. I am grateful for the moral and professional support of my colleagues at Washington and Lee University, especially those in the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability. I am also grateful to the Offices of the Provost and Dean of the College at my home institution, as well as to George Roupe, Marilyn Bliss, Ellen Satrom, and everyone at the University of Virginia Press. Most of all, thanks and thanks and ever thanks to my family, especially Bob, Jeneva, Clara, Foster, and Holly, without whom nothing.

ABBREVIATIONS

Kants Works

German text and citations from Kants gesammelte Schriften.

Kierkegaards Works

Danish text and citations from Sren Kierkegaards Samlede Vrker unless otherwise noted.

Levinass Works

INTRODUCTION

The Ethics of Theatricality/ The Theatricality of Ethics

ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE, / And all the men and women merely players is a sentiment that neither debuts nor disappears with Shakespeare. Clearly, whatever their differences, these examples (modern, premodern, and postmodern) reveal that the theatrical character of human character is here to stay.

Howeverand now we come to the problem that animates this bookwhile being human is theatrical, being theatrical is (on the face of it at least) unethical. In particular, to seem other than I amto play a part on the stage of the worldsounds dishonest, insincere, inauthentic. Worse, if the person (from the Latin for mask) is actor-like, yet being actor-like is hypocritical (from the Greek for stage-actor), then being ethical may be impossible. Alternatively, if moral development and deliberation demand actorly imitation (whether of moral exemplars or neighbors in need), then being a good human may require virtuous hypocrisy.

Confusion about the ethics of theatricalitypretending to be other than I am, in particularthreatens the coherence of the ethical self.actor flouts the ideal of congruence between what I seem to be and what I actually am. On the other hand, pretension (or something very much like it) occupies a pivotal place in our moral lives. Pretending to be other than I am (e.g., emulating a role model) may serve the cultivation of my moral character; if advocates of moral habituation are right, I just might have to fake it til I make it. Pretending to be other than I am (e.g., imaginatively reversing roles in order to do unto others as I would have them do unto me) may also inform my moral deliberations.