Authenticity in aesthetics

Abstract

Authenticity is an important and widely used concept in aesthetics. Yet it is also a contested and elusive one. In this article, we clarify the concept of authenticity as it is used in aesthetic discourse. Authenticity, we argue, is a term used to assert the truth of something possessing some contextually relevant feature that it is purported to have. Typically, however, this has an evaluative or normative dimension: the feature that an authenticity attribution verifies is either part of what grounds the object's aesthetic value or is normatively required by the aesthetic practice to which it belongs. We then propose a taxonomy of applications of authenticity according to the type of contextually relevant feature an object must possess to count as authentic—material authenticity, work authenticity, cultural authenticity, and personal authenticity. Using these categories, we provide a roadmap for navigating recent debates on authenticity in aesthetics.