Jezelf zijn in sociale rollen

Being Yourself in Social Roles: a response to Sanneke de Haan’s conception of authenticity

In this response to de Haan’s relational and enactive conception of authenticity I consider its implications for the way we fulfil professional and social roles in everyday life. I argue that on de Haan’s conception of authenticity it is possible to fulfil those roles in a fully authentic way, as long as one experiences and perceives oneself and the world in a role-appropriate manner and acts accordingly. This implication shows the radical break of de Haan’s understanding of authenticity with the tradition, particularly the existentialist tradition in which social roles are mostly articles of bad faith and ways to hide from our fundamental freedom.