Self Authorship

elf Today, a current trend is an acronym “YOLO”, which means you only live once. However, “YOLO” means much more. People only get one chance in life and must live it up to the fullest potential, but the need to stratify their own needs and desires as well as others around them. People get too caught up in life, they forget about themselves and do not live for them but others, forgetting about self-authorship. Self-authorship does not mean that a person should be selfish nor selfless, but should be in control of what they do in their life: being the author of their own book. They must also take into account what others feel, but not forgetting about them. Self-authorship is the only way a person can live life to the fullest and a healthy moral life. For a person to achieve self-authorship they must understand the requirements of it, understand how important it is to their life, what they will loose if self-Authorship is not achieved, and how it affects others in their life.

First off, self-authorship has three important requirements for a person. These requirements help define what self-authorship is and means to a person. According to Jean Hampton in her article “Selflessness and the Loss of Self”, one of the requirements to achieve self-authorship is “ a sense of your own intrinsic and equal value as a human being”. This is basically a person’s understanding of his or her worth in society. This helps shape what a person values in themselves and others. But how does an individual decide who is worth more, the other person or themselves? To be self-authored, Hampton suggests “one must respect the value not only of others but also of oneself, and must therefore reject any roles, projects, or occupations which would be self-exploitative” (Hampton 38). This is an egalitarian concept of human worth. Kant, which came up with this egalitarian theory states that all people are equal as long as they are rational and autonomous (Hampton, 37). In conclusion, one must...