Gilles Lipovetsky: "The ideal of authenticity leads us to change the world, others, and ourselves"

"We are immersed in the acceleration of time, in a state of permanent urgency, with its consequent devaluation of anything that does not reveal immediate utility. Only by resisting this utilitarian vision can we continue to form individuals capable of fighting for a more just and inclusive society. This forces us to constantly reassess where we are and where we want to be." It was with these words that the Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences of Católica, Nelson Ribeiro, opened the conference "Le nouvel âge de l'authenticité", which took place on March 29, in Lisbon.

The guest speaker of this conference, integrated in the Cycle of "50 Years Conferences", which marks the foundation of the Faculty, was Gilles Lipovetsky (University of Grenoble), known as the philosopher of hypermodernity, author of a vast work on the transformations of contemporary society.

On what he calls "authenticity fever", the subject of his latest book, "The Sage of Authenticity", Lipovetsky said that this ideal of "Be yourself" is "demanded by citizens, promised by politicians and desired by consumers" and that it coexists with the society of the "fake".

"The principle of authenticity is what has changed men and women. It is what makes us change the world, others and ourselves, and is based on a rule of life of obedience to individual desire", said the philosopher.

According to the thinker, this culture of authenticity, which has evolved over the years, began to find expression with the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, evolving in three phases up to the present day.

The first, which he called the heroic phase, in the 18th century, in which "Man seeks to obey the voice of the heart, acting according to his personal experience and conscience and which legitimises subjective autonomy". Then the second phase, characterised by the counterculture of the 1960s, with the student movements contesting established society and finally the radicalisation of the be yourself, which marks the present day.

"In this third phase we see that the principle of authenticity is institutionalised, it is legitimised by society and this is patent at various levels, especially in the marketing of companies," stresses Gilles Lipovetsky.

His latest book, "A sagração da autenticidade", was recently translated into Portuguese and is part of a vast work on modernity, individualism, ethics and globalisation. L'Émpire de l'éphémère; Le Crépuscule du devoir; La Troisième femme ; Le Luxe éterne are just some of the books already published by the author.