Irreconcilable differences: Divorcing ethics from existential authenticity

Rickly, Jillian M.; Vidon, Elizabeth S.; Knudsen, Daniel C.

Abstract

This paper challenges tourism research that attempts to bring together existential authenticity and ethics. Following on from others who have revived philosophically driven investigations of authenticity, we turn to key existential thinkers to specifically assess the ethical deficit of existential phenomenology. Doing so reveals Simone de Beauvoir to be unique in her development of an existential ethics. However, this does not fully allow us to reconcile existential authenticity with ethics in the existing tourism literature, as existential philosophy tells us that unethical actions can be authentic and ethical actions can be in inauthentic. Identifying these irreconcilable differences, we argue that future research on ethics and authenticity must be more firmly grounded in the concepts of freedom, ambiguity, and intentionality.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 8, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Feb 27, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Deposit Date: Jun 10, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 28, 2024
• Journal: Annals of Tourism Research
• Print ISSN: 0160-7383
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 88
• Article Number: 103174
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2021.103174
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5654562
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160738321000360