Faking It

by William Ian Miller

Overview

In this book polymath William Ian Miller probes one of the dirty little secrets of humanity: that we are all faking it much more than anyone would care to admit. He writes with wit and wisdom about the vain anxiety of being exposed as frauds in our professions, cads in our loves, and hypocrites to our creeds. He finds, however, that we are more than mere fools for wanting so badly to look good to ourselves and others. Sometimes, when we are faking it, our vanity leads to virtue, and we actually achieve something worthy of esteem and praise William Ian Miller is the Thomas G. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. He has also taught at Harvard, Yale, Chicago, and the Universities of Bergen and Tel Aviv. His previous books include The Mystery of Courage (Harvard University Press, 2000) and The Anantomy of Disgust (Harvard University Press, 1997).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521830188
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/18/2003
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.29(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

William Ian Miller is the Thomas G. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. He has also taught at Harvard University, Massachusetts, Yale University, Connecticut, the University of Chicago, the University of Bergen and Tel Aviv University. Professor Miller holds a JD and a PhD in English, both earned at Yale University. His various books, including most recently The Mystery of Courage (2000) and The Anatomy of Disgust (1997), have enjoyed critical acclaim throughout the world.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: split in two; 2. Hypocrisy and Jesus; 3. Anti-hypocrisy: looking bad in order to be good; 4. Virtues with natural immunities to hypocrisy; 5. Naked truth: hey, wanna …?; 6. In divine services and other ritualized performances; 7. Say it like you mean it: mandatory faking and apology; 8. Flattery and praise; 9. Hoist with his own petard; 10. The self, the double, and the sense of self; 11. At the core at last: the primordial Jew; 12. Passing and wishing you were what you are not; 13. Authentic moments with the beautiful and sublime?; 14. The alchemist: role as addiction; 15. 'I love you': taking a bullet vs. biting one; 16. Boys crying and girls playing dumb; 17. Acting our roles: mimicry, makeup, and pills; 18. False (im)modesty; 19. Caught in the act; Afterword.

Editorial Reviews

A law professor and literary scholar who plumbed other depths of moral unpleasantness in The Mystery of Courage and The Anatomy of Disgust, Miller here turns in an intelligent, articulate, somewhat convention-bound essay on the inevitable falseness of civilized behavior and the vanity of human nature that it conceals and reflects. With a blend of Jesuitical enthusiasm and Judaic ruefulness, he takes on the familiar demon of keeping up appearances. Starting with hypocrisy, which emulates and contaminates virtue, Miller considers the posturing inherent in such mechanisms of civility as religious ritual, seduction, apology and praise. After a due quota of vice spotting, Miller warms up to his central theme, the self-consciousness that compromises not only action but identity. The emphasis shifts from behavior to emotion: alienation, hatred, shame, anxiety, what Miller aptly calls the "vexations" behind routine fakeries like professionalism and cosmetics and high-stakes games like courtship and passing. The final section examines the processes by which we become the masks we assume. The book's chief philosophical strength is its light but serious treatment of germane texts: moments in the Gospels, passages from Hamlet and Tristram Shandy, a telling joke of Freud's. On the other hand, its most compelling feature is the inexorable pull of its author's Jewish identity, which he ultimately finds "at the core" of just the mode of self-consciousness that he is exploring. The book as a whole makes a fine introduction to that voice, and to the "ancient tradition of moral writing" that integrates serious thinking with everyday contexts. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In this refreshing book, Miller (Univ. of Michigan Law Sch.; The Mystery of Courage) considers the human propensity for fraudulence and the correlative fear of being found out. He makes us laugh as he describes trying to wing it in his class on property law or eyeing an attractive woman a few pews up during prayer, and he entertains us with stories of adults who overestimate their sexual prowess and children who find out that saying "please" doesn't buy them what they were told it would. In short, he finds us all engaged in fakery much of the time-knaves who deceive others and fools who deceive themselves. Self-deception implies a foolish self that can be tricked and a knavish self that does the tricking. Miller reads philosophers and knows that this idea is shaky, insisting that "at a minimum" there is a "point of consciousness from which I have thoughts that are felt to be mine and mine alone." But maybe the self is just Hume's "theater of the mind"; what fills it could be a self-construction. We seek recognition on the path Miller sees strewn with banana peels, but perhaps that's how souls are made. If so, this original book is suggesting a hopeful message. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries.-Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"William Ian Miller...scratches the itch of authenticity and relieves the ache of morality with delicious determination in Faking It."
—The Boston Globe


"Faking It is a fascinating book that explores, among other things, the anxiety, tension, and self-doubt that we all experience as we try to play certain social roles. Faking It is written in a clear and accessible way and would be of interest to anyone curious about deception, insincerity, authenticity, and human nature."
—Philosophy in Review


"...learned and deliciously discursive..." anyone curious about deception, insincerity, authenticity, and human nature."
—The Independent


"Faking It is essentially an intellectual thrill ride, complete with scholarly twists and comic spins — certainly worth the price of admission." anyone curious about deception, insincerity, authenticity, and human nature."
—California Literary Review


Advance praise: "Wonderfully wry, satirical, comical, and of course extremely widely read, he's apparently all-knowing about every low personal dodge by which we maneuver to appear better in the eyes of others than we really are—in love, in church, in bed, in the classroom... None of our common low bluffing and double-bluffing, our devoted passing ourselves off as what we're not, our making of false claims and laying of false trails about ourselves, none of our perpetual and practiced scams and schemes and dodges for gaining some personal advantage, escape Miller's unrelenting scrutiny. This is ethical-personal investigating for everyday consideration and of the most biddable and readable kind. One turns the page in a mounting agony of embarrassed recognition - exposed, found out, guilty as charged on every count. What a glorious delight of a book for the ethical self-
—Valentine Cunningham, Oxford University


"In this refreshing book, Miller ... entertains us with stories of adults who overestimate their sexual prowess and children who find out that saying "please" doesn't buy them what they were told it would. In short, he finds us all engaged in fakery much of the time.... Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries."
—Library Journal


"Intelligent, articulate...its most compelling feature is the inexorable pull of its author's Jewish identity...the book as a whole makes a fine introduction to that voice, and to the 'ancient tradition of moral writing' that integrates serious thinking with everyday contexts."
—Publishers Weekly


"William Ian Miller's "Faking It" (Cambridge University Press) is a brilliant, insightful and very funny study of the tendency to lay claim to more power. knowledge and authority than you really have."
—NEWSDAY


"Miller...has written an erudite, accessible and relentlessly lively book."
—San Diego Union Tribune

From the Publisher