Heidegger defines authenticity as abiding by certain values such as integrity, flexibility, openness, and perseverance. It is starkly defined by a number of features, including the acceptance of death, the rejection of the inauthentic, and the adoption of responsibility for one’s actions. Inauthenticity, on the other hand, can be determined as a life lived only according to one’s environment, the reality in which they have found themselves, and their conformity with the realities provided by others. Heidegger’s concept is valuable because he believes that abiding in the self, the core of a person that shapes experiences and identity, fosters authenticity. Due to my personal experiences, a person is able to see how it is their own identity that changes their existence through choices in their personal life, work, or presence in society. Individuals may feel dissatisfaction when conforming with exterior values placed on them and find themselves being inauthentic in those moments.
Heidegger utilizes a number of his own terminology in expanding on the issue of the authentic self. One of these includes the ‘Dasein,’ which can be interpreted as both a presence and a being and refers to an innately human condition of existence (Abergel 85). According to Heidegger, people “cannot define Dasein’s essence by citing a ‘what’ of the kind that pertains to a subject matter” (Being and Time 24). Essentially, the quote above is deeply rooted in the existentialist viewpoint concerning the understanding of the self. The inability to define oneself by a specific subject matter is actually the core of authenticity. Both in existentialist ideology and Heidegger’s own work, the collection of definitions and explanations is actually a contribution to inauthentic life and behavior. Implications in current examples can be summarized by the unwillingness to live a life dedicated to one’s own interpretations and instead abiding by an inauthentic example, whether it is in the workspace, the socio-political sphere, or in one’s own personal life. This is primarily because it is the rejection of the possible unknown and the acceptance of the potentially unproven. Such a process becomes automatically inauthentic and, therefore, an obstacle to Heidegger’s example of an optimal life of authenticity (Egan 93). Instead, Heidegger embraces the intangible and dynamic version of the self as being closer to authenticity.
Heidegger’s work also makes a note of anxiety and its roots in the confrontation of numerous themes such as death, the unknown, and the self. While he believes that the experience with authenticity may cause severe anxiety regarding oneself within the world, it is integral and a viable price to pay in order to reach the authentic self. Idle talk, or any conversation undertaken simply to fill the space, is considered to be “releases one from the task of genuinely understanding” according to Heidegger (Heidegger, The Heidegger Reader 69). Through idle talk, or any ideology that works to promote an illusion over authenticity, anxiety may be quelled, but the truth is left undiscovered. As such, Heidegger finds that the ability to expose one’s anxiety for the sake of living or understanding an authentic life is expected in order to lead an optimal life. Anxiety is a recurring topic within the sphere of existentialism and philosophy as a whole, and it can often be masked by definitions or unproven evidence. This is an approach dissuaded not only by Heidegger but a number of prominent existentialist philosophers.
Related to both anxiety and the self, Heidegger also emphasizes the ability to understand one’s own mortality for the sake of authenticity. When Heidegger states that “back from the endless multiplicity of possibilities, which [include]… those of comfortableness, shirking, and taking things lightly”, he also alludes to death (Being and Time 51). The death of oneself is the undeniable end goal of every human being, and therefore a unified source of anxiety, but also of reality. Heidegger finds that in realizing one’s own mortality, the choices and lifestyles one selects can also alter drastically. Without the fear of death or the reliance on an afterlife, a person’s priorities and the perception of self becomes more authentic (Nielsen and Skotnicki, 2018). This is because their view is stripped from beliefs and rituals that are based on inauthentic understandings of the world and the self. Therefore, the acceptance of death is integral to observing authenticity within oneself. Death itself has proven to be an inevitable reality, a component of authenticity itself, and should be treated as such. Its denial or transformation is futile and also a limitation to one’s own life.
While Heidegger offers a myriad of elements that compose authentic life and perspective, the most prominent remains the acceptance of death, the rejection of the inauthentic, and the confrontation of one’s own anxiety and responsibility. Returning to the definition of authenticity, it can be said that while Heidegger accepts change and derivation, the true terminology remains. Heidegger expects individuals to be faithful to their true state of being. The authenticity proposed by Heidegger is only available to people because they are human, as with the rejection of death, the unknown, and the imperfect, authenticity is lost. Exterior factors have an impact on the self and the experience of existence. It is the core self that has shaped an individual’s current-day identity and what has driven their choices, which can range from life-changing to one’s daily routine.
Works Cited
Abergel, David C. “The Confluence of Authenticity and Inauthenticity in Heidegger’s Being and Time.” Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual, vol. 10, no. 1, 2020, pp. 74-100, Web.
Egan, David. The Pursuit of an Authentic Philosophy: Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and the Everyday. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Must Have Books, 2021.
The Heidegger Reader. Edited by Günther Final and Translated by Jerome Veith, Indiana University Press, 2009.
Nielsen, Kelly, & Tad Skotnicki. “Sociology Towards Death: Heidegger, Time and Social Theory.” Journal of Classical Sociology, vol. 19, no. 2, 2018, pp. 111-137, Web.