Sincerity

In the modern world, sincerity is the elusive virtue of speaking truly about one's feelings, thoughts, desires. Sincere expression carries risks to the speaker, since the ordinary screens used in everyday life are opened to the outside world. At the same time, we expect our friends, our lovers, our leaders "to be sincere."

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Sincerity has not always been a virtue. It appears to have become an ideal for the first time in Europe and North America in the 17th century; and it gained considerable momentum during the Romantic movement, when sincerity was first celebrated as an artistic ideal.

Related Topics:
17th century - Romantic movement

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In more recent discussions sincerity appears threatened by modern developments such as psychoanalysis and postmodern developments such as deconstructionism. More and more, scholars see sincerity as a construct rather than as a thing in itself.

Related Topics:
Psychoanalysis - Postmodern - Deconstructionism - Construct

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A 1912 novel by Warwick Deeping is also called Sincerity.

Related Topics:
1912 - Warwick Deeping - Sincerity

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Literary critic Lionel Trilling dealt with the subject of sincerity, its roots, its evolution, its moral quotient, and its relationship to authenticity in a series of lectures published under the title Sincerity and Authenticity.

Related Topics:
Lionel Trilling - Authenticity - Sincerity and Authenticity

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The etymology of the word sincere is the Latin sine=without cera=wax. Sculptors who made mistakes when carving marble would disguise the cracks with wax. A sculpture which was without these additions was "without wax".

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