The Existential Imperative

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What are important freedoms, and what are theconditions for their exercise? The influence ofsociety has a profound impact on one's ability toexecute a distinct pattern of existence. Thoughcertain outward circumstances make liberty possible, there are also internal enabling conditions.Authenticity is the freedom to constitute an inwardprinciple of organization, one that articulates ameasured valuation of and for the self. Yet, authenticity requires an awareness of one'sresponsibility for freedom, as well as therecognition that self-expression is meaningful onlyin a social context. Consequently, the establishedand inherited patterns of communal value are at oddswith one's capacity for original self-definition.This book examines the problem that occurs when theenabling conditions for freedom are themselvesobstacles to authenticity. It argues thatself-overcoming is the necessary spiritual resourcefor the material production of an authentic self.Those who are interested in Nietzsche, structuraloppression as a limiting or constricting factor, andthe African-American example of struggle andovercoming will find this work especially helpful.