A stílus az ember képe.” Autentikusság, stílus, autonómia

In our article, we argue that, contrary to the essentialist conception of authenticity, it is more productive to view authenticity not as the inner core of the person, the true self, but as public patterns of metaphorical exemplification awaiting interpretation. If, following Goodman and Danto, we accept that authentic style is a metaphorical exemplification, then, based on Rorty’s concept of language and metaphor, we can view style as an exaptation of symbols adapted to specific functions through cultural selection. In our article to support this approach, we proceed as follows: first, using the model of Goodman and Danto, we argue that authentic style can best be captured by metaphorical exemplification, and then show that the metaphorical use of linguistic, pictorial, and other symbols is exaptation. According to our results, the authentic style is the exaptation of symbols adapted to the functions defined during cultural selection. We then clarify the relationship between authenticity and creativity through the concepts of style and manners, and then point out that whether a particular use of a symbol is authentic or not does not depend on whether creative or mechanical mental processes are responsible for its creation. Finally, we examine the relationship between authenticity and autonomy and show that in a cultural milieu that favours autonomous decisions and authentic style, agents that originally created non-authentic symbols can also become authentic symbol users.