Conceptions of authenticity and sincerity have dominated Western thought since the Enlightenment, a period in which Immanuel Kant argued that individuals should be free to pursue knowledge as a means to better understand the human condition, and thus their authentic selves. (“The motto of Enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude!,” Kant wrote. “Have... See more

Smaller units (individuals, communities, etc.) have efficient but localized forms of doing a thing. The doing of the thing is plugged into a much larger worldview which explains both how to do the thing and why you do the thing — James Scott calls that metis. When a larger unit (states, corporations, what have you) subsumes the smaller unit, it... See more