Heidegger's "Authenticity" Revisited Author(s): Charles B. Guignon Source: The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Dec.

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HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY" REVISITED

CHARLES B. GUIGNON

J.N

his

recent

book

on Heidegger's

concept

of authenticity,

Eclipse

of the Self, Michael Zimmerman points attempt to link the theoretical-ontological

philosophy The aim with the of grounding There the personal-existential the "question

out Heidegger's life-long questions of traditional

issues of everyday life.1 more in a deeper,

of Being"

authentic way of being human

and Time. questions?What the most intensely is the meaning seemingly is the meaning

is most
most

strikingly
abstract

evident

in Being
of

of Being??is

of all metaphysical in terms posed

personal of human

any individual?What facing question answer To existence? the former claims, this in lives. we must turn transform a our radical

question approach alteration that tative quotes his

appropriately, Heidegger to the latter. And in the quality ontological tone of the with full "The of our

requires

findings account approval

have of

Despite Heidegger's no evaluative import,

insistence the exhor He own

authenticity Yorck's Count aim of our

is unmistakable.

philosophy: the broadest

practical sense of the word"

of his description is pedagogical in standpoint Its goal is "to make (p. 402).2

possible

the cultivation

of individuality"

(p. 403).

Emerging

out

1 of the Seif: The Development Eclipse of Heidegger's of Concept (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Authenticity Press, 1981). 2 are to Sein und Zeit in parentheses references Page (T?bingen: Max Niemeyer I have generally the Macquarrie followed Verlag, 1972). and Robinson translation of Being and Time (New York: Harper & Row, have been made where revisions Toward the 1962), although necessary. end of Being and Time, Heidegger cites the letters of Count Yorck from his correspondence with Wilhelm had made the same Dilthey. Dilthey claim about the practical ends of his philosophy: "The fruit and goal of all true philosophy is pedagogy in the broadest of sense, the cultivation man" 8: 7, quoted by Michael Ermarth in Wilhelm (Gesammelte Schriften, The Critique Reason of Chicago Dilthey: of Historical [Chicago: University Press, 1981], p.35).
Review Metaphysics of Metaphysics 38 (December 1984): 321-339. Copyright ? 1985 by the Review of

322
of an age that shaken itself perceived intellectual by and to as a time currents the

CHARLES B. GUIGNON
of profound a crisis, scientific of life, (Bod enduring Welt (

period

of

materialism, and Being

Darwinism, Time attempts within

complete the combat world framework

relativism, secularization

"groundlessness" by uncovering of "worldliness"

of the enlosigkeit) values and meanings

contemporary the

lichkeit)
exercise gravity

and human
in arcane and

finitude.
of

The
its aim existence

"question
is to restore by

of Being"
a sense

is no
of the a more

speculation;

grasp profound Zimmerman's ularized a matter

responsibility of what book

recovering

it is to be.3 provides readings to oneself," feelings, "egoism," associations a useful of the pop as of authenticity concept where is understood this "self" drives. frees By character the notion corrective to some

"existentialist"

of being "true as consisting of "inner" izing ?nauthenticity from as its

and needs, Zimmerman with

of and

authenticity us reminds as

of Heidegger's constitutive of the self.4

self-preoccupation on involvement in the world emphasis But Zimmerman's central thesis that and that it presents a "volun as

and Time Being taristic-individualistic matter of personal had

is "subjectivistic," interpretation self-determination,

of authenticity"5 seems one-sided

a solely and mis

leading, especially
this work

in the light of Heidegger's

subjectivism.6 By

later claims

that

overcome

overlooking

the program

3 a "more primordial" sense aim of "retrieving" of Heidegger's as teleological human to a wider existence and as belonging social and context in Alasdair historical finds a parallel Virtue Maclntyre's After of Notre Dame Press, (Notre4 Dame: University 1981). Nevertheless Zimmerman's claim that "it is natural for us to ourselves since we live in a world of objects" objectify (Eclipse of the a deep confusion about the conception of worldhood Self, p. 47) betrays we do not live in a world in Being and Time. For Heidegger, of objects; we live, for the most part, in a "ready-to-hand" context of equipmental relations into a web of means/ends relations. For the same organized reason to say that our everyday it is wrong is self-understanding or self-objectifying. Just as it is the case that an equipmental egoistical as a collection context can be encountered of brute objects (the "present so the "self" of Being-in-the-world, with the breakdown at-hand") only can be encountered as an "ego" only when has collapsed. everydayness 5 Eclipse of the Self, p. 199. 6 on Humanism" For in "The Letter which states that instance, and in "The Essence of Truth" Being and Time "abandons subjectivity," to which and all subjectivity of according "every kind of anthropology man as subject in that work" is . . . left behind ed., (both in D. F. Krell,

REVISITED 323 HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY"

for Being trivialize and the Time a whole, of the Self Eclipse work. of Heidegger's greatest seems Time in Being and of authenticity important respects. it ignores First, it fails as tends Zimmer deficient for to

achievement

man's in at

treatment least three

to account

the methodological
mental

role of the concept of authenticity

an apparent when which,

in funda
in care

Second, ontology. account of authenticity Heidegger's

inconsistency examined

of human of the conception and complexity the depth fully, reveals to treat it tends the and Time. existence in Being And, third, in an excessively of "authentic discussion historicity" subjectivistic in the plan for the its integral fails to show and hence way, place work as a whole.7 I shall take up each of these interrelated issues in turn.

The methodological
in Being of Being": and Time will of that work.

role that the concept of authenticity

become if we review out as is to work of Being and the such"

plays

apparent aim Heidegger's explicit a "science to develop that is,

the program "question (p. 230)

which will provide "a genealogy

of the different
opaque,"

possible ways
we are told,

of

for its "modes Being" (p. 11) and account "naive remains and But such an inquiry

derivatives"

(p. 18). if

& Row, 1977], p. 207 and p. 141, Writings [New York: Harper own comments on of Heidegger's dismissal Zimmerman's respectively). that "Heidegger's his earlier works with the assertion self-interpretations a grain of salt" (Eclipse of the Self, p. 77) seems must be taken with cavalier. slightly 7 sees Heidegger's discussion of historicity and That Zimmerman of Being and Time as extraneous at the end of the published part history in an earlier essay: to the project as a whole is revealed by his comment was only of Dasein's "It seems as if the entire analysis 'historically' and Time and seems not to have played 'tacked on' to the end of Being a vital role in the articulation idea of the work of the leading itself" 19 [Summer of Being and Time," Philosophy Today ("The Foundering to describe the relation In Eclipse of the Self, the attempt 1975]: 104). of a people and the authentic between Dasein's historicity temporality that are never for reasons is termed "ultimately (p. xxiv) unsatisfying" in Being and Time is found of history The discussion made very clear. for the later concept of "the it fails to account to be inadequate because In my opinion, however, to human history. of Being" as opposed history sense in or "destiny of Being" only makes the later talk of Seinsgeschick in the earlier work. of history terms of the important conception Basic

324 it fails to first consider

my emphasis). The

CHARLES B. GUIGNON "the meaning

into

of Being
the meaning

in general"
of Being

(p. 11;
makes

investigation

up the first

stage

of fundamental

ontology.

This

investigation
the The Being "funda internal of

however, itself, the entity which mental question," relative in which

a preliminary into requires inquiry to be. what it means understands Heidegger says, is "the problem

of the

possibility
questions horizon

of the understanding

of Being,

from which

all specific
the of

to Being arise."8 is understood Being which there

if we have clarified Only can we pose the question

Being
with "Dasein" The

in the proper way.

an "existential

Consequently

Being

and Time begins

human existence or

analytic" as the arena in which is to find certain

examines

goal

"essential

is an understanding of Being. or "existentialia" structures"

that constitute Dasein

instances The route to the

by investigating
question But this to of Being

the "existentiell"
therefore raises the begins

or specific
with of a the

of Dasein?ourselves.

proper

self-interpretation. mode

of

access

fundamental regional taking particular, epistemology a knowing

ontology as sciences their it must which subject

approach the entity to is supposed and

question examined. Since being a foundation for such lay it cannot nature begin of man. traditional status More there

biology assumptions set aside compress

over

psychology, about the

by In

the human

presuppositions existence

of into the

of can

collecting critique

over, Heidegger's be no "immediate" or reflection. Our

and processing of Cartesianism

"experiences." reveals that

arrived self-knowledge "direct" understanding

the product as circulate and disguise

of traditional of a template in our culture, sense" "common as much as they world reveal. is mediated our Since by our

at through introspection of ourselves is always schernatizations which and our way social tend to distort

ourselves categories

and and

of interpreting and historical self

interpretation In order

conceptualizations, a misinterpretation. is generally from a neutral

normal,

"self-evident"

to start

standpoint,

then,

the existential

analytic begins by laying out our plain sense of what this is found "proximally and for the most part"

it is to be as in everyday

8 trans. J. S. Churchill Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, (Bloom I have modified the Indiana University Press, 1962), p. 240. ington: with Being to make it consistent and Time. translation

REVISITED HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY"

active situations

325

involved Our normal, practical prior to reflection. a "vague in the world understand average embody always dealings and this "pre-ontological claims, ing of Being*9 (p. 5), Heidegger a can be described to develop in order of Being" understanding "preliminary" basis for interpreting is still Dasein. infected context, But insofar as this by distortions it is necessary

everyday pre-understanding to us by our social and historical in a deep structure for our interpretation and content. of the

conveyed to engage

to reveal of "everydayness" its underlying use of the term "hermeneutics" Heidegger's existential analytic as a kind indicates of that he sees which

the method ordinary

self-understanding of Dasein's

text-analogue a text which

can be interpreted
In conceiving be

to bring to light its hidden meaning.

existence as like the At of is to of Dasein analysis the outset of Being this problem. be understood It is in

exposes however, Heidegger interpreted, to the problem of the "hermeneutic circle." one version and Time (sec. 2) he considers that a part of a text can agreed generally terms of some

only In order of the whole. to grasp preliminary a parable I must in the Gospels, for instance, understand under stand it in terms of the Christian of the New Testament. message Similarly, Heidegger I must have is, for otherwise argues, some in order to inquire the Being of what Being into of

Dasein,

general I am discovering since the meaning examining the Being yet we can

Dasein, of Dasein

Being entity's and not something else? But by the analysis was to be uncovered in general of Being first by seems to be a circle: we can only there identify if we have a prior grasp of Being in general,

grasp preliminary how would I know it is that

in

in general the meaning of Being only determine by the Being of Dasein. working our to this is to begin with solution Heidegger's problem of Being and use it as a "preliminary" vague average understanding and "tentative" horizon of understanding for inquiring into the out

Being of Dasein.
will This then revision will

On the basis of this first analytic

to revise then enable our initial understanding horizon the generate us to "repeat" a new

of Dasein,
of Being.

it

be necessary that will

of Being

of understanding of Dasein "on analytic

a higher and authentically ontological basis" (p. 17). But it is evident that this new analytic of Dasein will once again disclose
a new a horizon seemingly for understanding interminable spiral in general, and so on into Being of back and forth movements

326
between the Being there the grasp of Being Our as a whole

CHARLES B. GUIGNON
and the interpretation assures of Being This of us

of Dasein.

pre-understanding the hermeneutic claim that

that we can initiate the inquiry. What

can be a closure for is aggravated and universal by Heidegger's horizon" at each

is problematic
of Dasein. we are

here is how

problem com "constantly

pelled to face the possibility

of disclosing

an even more primordial

stage (p. 26), so that the need may for new repetitions. is some arise What is required, then, always at the ultimate criterion when we have arrived that will determine for understanding version second of the the meaning of need the for of Being. of the hermeneutic

horizon The arises any

because

problem a background

circle

Every interpretation. of anticipations structure" Since these interpreted. can things such thing stand as out

interpretation and assumptions presuppositions for us, Heidegger

in of presuppositions a "fore is mediated by is being about what in the ways regulate says that there of can some

which be no thing exact there'

presented textual interpretation . . . one finds that than the

a "presuppositionless to us" Even (p. 150). and wants what obvious stands

apprehending one when in is engaged to what "to appeal 'stands there in the first instance of the assumption can be no direct There

other is nothing person who does encounter of the with prior then, a

the

undiscussed

interpreting" (p. 150). or "things in themselves" facts" independent assumptions projected by the understanding. "bare that the interpretation of 'presuppositions'" In the (p. 232). is a "formal of how we are asks of Dasein is regulated is called which of the existential

It in the

follows, advance

by "hermen?utica! what But

"totality situation"

case idea

analytic, 314).

the

is presupposed arises question In section

presupposition.

63, Heidegger

of existence" (p. to justify this initial the "evidence" about

of his interpretation for the correctness (p. 312). Since the analytic of Dasein has been "already illumined by the 'presupposed'
idea of existence," from he asks, "where does this idea get its justifica

tion?" (p. 313). What

Starting at very different

makes

it "binding for everyone?"

(p. 312).

provide the interpretation. In the

one might have arrived presuppositions, to The problem is how conclusions. different here, then, a confirmation for the presuppositions that have guided context of Being and Time it seems that the solution

to the problems

of closure and confirmation

is to be found in the

REVISITED HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY"

notion of authenticity. and authentic

327

that "truth which is says Heidegger must of the understanding guarantee primordial one the Being in general" of Dasein and of Being When (p. 316). one will a "clearing has become achieve of con away authentic, in order to become cealments obscurities" and (p. 129) fully about "transparent" to the confirmation "hermeneutical "the of truth the of existence" (p. 221). With that make will enable respect up us the to

situation," When Dasein

presuppositions authentic becoming is authentic,

justify
pretation.

the "formal

idea of existence"

that has guided

it can "decide

the inter
for itself

whether, as the entity it is, it has the composition of Being which has been disclosed in the projection of its formal aspects" (p. 315;
Heidegger's of the cycle authentic "ultimate" the when will With emphasis). of interpretations, also enable us horizon horizon respect to the problem of the closure that becoming suggests Heidegger we have to know when the reached Being. We have arrived at

for understanding of understanding, the primordial of our

deepest we have and

according "sources," way and

to Heidegger, "wellsprings," of grasping what about

uncovered native

"origins," of

"soil"

everyday theories

it is to be. As authentic, we will be able to peel off the hardened

layers "customary, traditional opinions

Being"
basic "the

(p. 6) in order to recover "the soil [Boden] from which

grew" ontological have become (p. 3). The aim by is to demonstrate an investigation concepts

the

origin

concepts ontological of our basic we

in which
be achieved

their birth certificate

only this that the when

is displayed"

(p. 22), and this can helps

But burden refers

authentic.

Clarifying
explain why also shows placed on

the methodological
notion there

role of authenticity

to
it

is not merely normative in intent. is a tremendous methodological authenticity. "own one's about of If authenticity

merely Zimmerman ological

concept to decisiveness asserts,

then For

it will those

not

as specific possibilities," be able to meet its method possibilities are "existen

obligations.9

specific

9 See also p. 61: "the resolute Eclipse of the Self, pp. 72 and 75. is always open to a particular individual his own"; group of possibilities: and p. 75: "an individual must relinquish the numerous self-interpretations offered on Because of this emphasis by the 'they' [i.e., das Man]." individual willfulness and self-determination, cut off from any social can say that "Heidegger Zimmerman tends to interpret responsibility, in a romantic the self-willed individual way: authenticity struggling

328
tiell" and, as we shall see later, drawn made accessible

CHARLES B. GUIGNON
from the range of self

interpretations even with the to them, seem to promise the kind fundamental Heidegger's ontology. project

so that relating in the public world, not of resoluteness, does "transparency" to ground of ontological "content" needed without such a content, it seems will that have a "science of Being"

And

of developing

In the interpretation of authenticity to be scuttled. then, it will be necessary to keep this methodological
in mind.

that follows, desideratum

II There are a number of inconsistencies in Being and Time

which must
rather two than "modes"

be handled
another. of Dasein's on at least For

by opting

for one line of interpretation

enticity?but also some

of Heidegger example, generally speaks of being?authenticity and inauth way an "undiffer one occasion he mentions

entiated mode,"
involvement or not. that

suggesting

that there might

be three.
our

There
essential inauthentic

is

as uncertainty in day-to-day deals

to whether

Zimmerman

"everydayness," is necessarily preoccupations, with these inconsistencies

the undifferentiated and

mode

authenticity one will how concept one of of

inauthenticity in a book live.10 But, surprisingly to consider he fails what authenticity, glaring inconsistencies lights up the

by concluding of everydayness is "neutral," while as to involve deliberate choices devoted appears to the

to be

the most

when which, analyzed, of being human.11

in Being and Time?one of Heidegger's view richness

so he can achieve his values to break free from conventional mightily an No clue is given as to what own possibilities" (p. 96; my emphasis). be. "own possibilities" individual's might 10 that It should be noted, however, of the Self, pp. 44ff. Eclipse this line of interpretation. there is a great deal of textual evidence against itself in terms understands statement that "Dasein always Heidegger's terms of a possibility of itself: to be itself or not of its existence?in as that there are really only two possibilities, itself" (p. 12) suggests on p. 68 of the English edition: translated does the confusingly passage it its own possibility, is in each case essentially "And because Dasein 'choose' itself and win can, in its Being, itself; it can [also] lose itself, i.e., never win itself and only 'seem' to do so" (p. 42). 11 has only been this inconsistency To the best of my knowledge in "An Inquiry into Authenticity in detail by Joan Stambaugh discussed

REVISITED HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY"

The inconsistency arises in the

329

In the early way. following in its "average of Dasein of the description stages everydayness," out Dasein's to conformism. In our tendency Heidegger points we to handle in standardized tend affairs, equipment everyday

ways

and drift

into the socially

approved

slots

laid out in the

act as anyone does. The "I" of everyday We agency public world. tells us; it is "das Man," is not something the Heidegger unique, or the "Anyone." to fall in "one" Our anonymous temptation

indictment of the the crowd is the basis for the well-known But at the end of his critique in Being and Time. Anyone that being the Anyone is not just an error that says Heidegger with
the Anyone is an existentiale the contrary, to Dasein's it "belongs of Dasein's and Being, For this reason claims constitution" Heidegger positive (p. 129). is only an "existentiell mode" of our essential that authenticity of being as the Anyone: way could be avoided. On or essential facet does not rest upon Authentic Being-one's-self [eigentliche Selbstsein] a condition an exceptional of the subject, that has been condition from the Anyone; it is rather an existentiell detached modification as an essential the Anyone existentiale. (p. 130) of the Anyone?of

The priority
"Authentic modification to reverse it

of the Anyone

is reemphasized
the definite form But

later

in the text:
seems that is an

Being-one's-self of the Anyone this order

takes

of an existentiell

. . ." (p. 267). of priorities elsewhere and that that

Heidegger when he suggests being an Anyone

is prior, is authenticity that He states "existentiell mode."

and for the most part Dasein is not itself but is lost in proximally is an existentiell the Anyone-self of modification [Man-selbst], which the Authentic self [eigentlichen (p. 317) Selbst],

As a result we find that "inauthenticity of authenticity" (p. 259).

Is this reading between an outright passages contradiction? reveals self" and of these the that

is based on the possibility

Not

"Authentic

A close necessarily. a distinction is being made as existentialia, the "Anyone"

and

in Being and Time," Research in Phenomenology 7 Inauthenticity 153-61. she says that her aim is that of "at least Whereas (1977): that contradiction" that there is no argue softening (p. 154), I will contradiction.

330
on the one hand, and as existentiell self" resolve Dasein one." one's-self modes the apparent is simultaneously then will Only and of Dasein's Being-one's-self" on the modifications, contradiction, then, both an "Authentic it be clear being being. in what "authentic

CHARLES B. GUIGNON
and other. we must and the "Anyone are If we to show the how "Any

self" sense

authentic are

inauthentic essential

an Anyone-self

Being existentiell

The dual nature of Dasein

Anyone human. comes One to of the

as both an Authentic

self and the

in Heidegger's characterization of being light central of Being is to describe and Time goals as to bypass in such a way Dasein the traditional of conception man or "thing," as a "substance" or whether physical, psychic, "personal." Heidegger or "event" the Being achievement the capture Dasein's begins by portraying "from extending (Geschehen) of an event is defined in terms In order to dynamic Being birth of of life, a "happening" as to death." Just as (i.e., "what nature

its outcome

happened"),

so the Being
its

of Dasein

is defined
I can

in terms

of the

of all my only if I do not fall prey to any last-minute for example, conversions. life, on my deathbed, to my family's If I succumb entreaties and repent true of me. the description atheist" is no longer For "life-long a success an accomplishment is verb: it is that humans, "Being" is realized seems no in one's "Being-a-whole." to say that I can my as life notes that it Heidegger I am be something when only He is finished. therefore defines But "Being in relation living we realize it or not, will be we are is determined by our of as the of "happening" "formal" determination along a "temporal" the a life of axis.12 -end" or

life as a whole.

be an atheist

longer,

paradoxical that

is, when

Dasein's

"Being-a-whole" toward-death" characterizing end. Each of

"Being-toward-the this as a way what

to one's

us, whether and realization. of Dasein basis for

at some point, complete stance that final toward The as the a whole self as characterization the provides a "movement"

(Bewegung)

What
that

is definitive of "the formal existential totality of Dasein's is structural whole" (p. 192), according to Heidegger, ontological
is has a certain among entities "Being-relation" in that, "in its Being, to itself. Dasein is unique to it has a Being-relation

12 Strictly the movement

it is not movement along a temporal speaking that is constituted temporalizing by "temporality

axis, but itself."

REVISITED HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY" this Being"

Dasein

331 this definition of

(p. 12).

In order

to understand

we must see that Dasein as a "self-relation," is characterized are called as having two aspects "essence" and "existence."13 which as "essence," which as an Dasein it must take is "thrown" up in some into the (geworfen) or other. We way

Regarded task of find stand

living ourselves before

"ability-to-be" we have us as something "essence" that "in each We context that yet"

to Dasein's own to be"

and our lives (Seink?nnen), It belongs "to be" (zu sein). case as its its Being it has find ourselves which shape a "already-in" us with the provides our "facticity." Seen is always of Dasein

specific determinate as passive, something itself,

(p. 12; my emphasis). cultural and historical range Dasein still not

of possibilities "not is always which, 'actual'" become

outstanding yet as "existence," be human

"there something: as an ability-to-be

has

Regarded of-itself." To

however, is to be

(p. 236). Dasein

living, to be "projecting" of one's life as a whole. essentially which point as

(entwerfen)

underway oneself

is already "ahead in the enterprise of toward the realization

characterizes human existence Heidegger we express in each of our actions teleological: goals to some sense of our lives as a final, definitive outward When I explode I accept in rage, my life's I make overview minor irritations a commitment, of what my

of meaning. configuration or when with equanimity whether life am. issue" roles consciously amounts to as Because our a

or not,

concerning

sort of person I what totality?concerning to us?because lives matter who we are is "at for us?we always take some stand on specific This "Being "existence": Dasein we can call in

or "at stake" and

a-whole," Heidegger comport "existence9" taking Dasein

in living out our lives. self-interpretations which is the ultimate of life, is called goal that "the Being itself toward which says itself, and does itself

always (p. 12). Dasein a stand on its life. As is defined as

comport somehow, is always itself" "beyond already a projection its culmination, towards Being toward

a "self-projective

its ownmost

ability-to-be"

(p. 191).

The Being of Dasein is determined by the way it relates itself to the task of living by taking a concrete stand on its life as a
to Ernst Der 131 am indebted Tugendhat's de Gruyter und Heidegger Husserl (Berlin: Walter account of the "formal" definition of Dasein.

bei Wahrheitsbegriff & Co., 1970) for my

332
whole. The "Being-relation" This is why roles that

CHARLES B. GUIGNON
is definitive of Dasein only 'essence9

works
enterprise

itself out in the specific possibilities

of living. the Heidegger

one takes over in the

says that "the

of Dasein
is defined

lies in its existence"

by actual

(p. 42).
I take over

Since who and what

in making with the choices

I am
for my

life, my Being
take This up pregiven structure

is defined by the goal-directedness

possibilities as of Dasein up the in dealing a thrown formal projection definition

with which
current that situation. is engaged and

in the world "ontological "bringing responsible Heidegger a totality. The

makes

of

"care,"

its

meaning" to fruition") for what says

"temporalizing" (literally: of temporality. Because each of us is solely or her life adds his up to "in the end," is "in each case mine" that Dasein (p. 42). No one

is found

in the

can fill in for me

"formal"

in the project of making

structure "Authentic structure of all We our of of Dasein's self." thrown It

something
existence is as

of my
a

life as

is the "happening" that this temporal "essential structure" authentically sense dual finitude as or not. of facing

important whether

temporal to realize is the live they in the

goal-directedness

instances are all

of Dasein,

we something us is unique to the extent that and can have a pattern says that

"Being-toward-the-end" extinction and of having this possible can bring to realization. of alone Each a final pattern have that our lives will is coherent and integrated. Heidegger

can be is in its essence which something only insofar as [Dasein] of its own?can it have lost itself and authentic?that is, something and inauthentidty not yet won itself. As modes of Being, authenticity are both grounded in general is characterized in the fact that Dasein by mineness. (pp. 42-43)14

self and does take a stand on Only because Dasein is an Authentic its life can it flee from itself and live in an inauthentic mode.
The toward temporal axis of Dasein's is intersected Dasein self-completion in the world. involvement and routines. as such In our as Being at every a purposive point by thrust an axis of

is essentially lives caught we

world" and

is unavoidably everyday

up are generally

"Being-in-the in mundane tasks occupied

14 My

emphasis

on "can be" and

"modes."

REVISITED HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY"

with The contexts ways we our in trying of equipment handle the tools we find lives in the we have are social been regulated world initiated to realize

333
goals. practical us and the ways we conventions are thrown. made Only can we means can we from take are the

around and we

conduct accessible because handle that over what all have we

by norms into which into

a shared ways.

"we-world" But this we Since

ourselves of the been make

in coherent, roles possible laid out of ourselves

normalized and

in advance

self-interpretations by the Anyone. over possibilities

in taking we and we are

public world,
residue. roles, cultural our Being As offices, context

the possibilities
the Anyone, in which vocations,

of the Anyone
status

define us without

are the Anyone's. because those places "anyone" If the Anyone is an "essential existentiale" of Dasein, authen cannot be a matter of "transcending the herd" in any sense. ticity as an "existentiell must be understood mod Rather, authenticity could ification" Authentic of our essential To be self. being authentic as is both to be the an and Anyone resolute about one's

in everydayness fill our places

in a nexus of "place-holders" relations in the up opened find ourselves. says that Heidegger or "delegatable": is "representable"

ability to live one's life as a coherent totality, but Heidegger

out that "even resolutions The remain dependent of upon the Anyone its world" that resolute (p. 299). existence "transparency" cannot be disengaged authenticity from the public

points
and reveals world:

In resoluteness the issue for Dasein is its ownmost ability-to-be as something can project itself only upon definite which, thrown, factical Resolution does not withdraw itself from possibilities. but discovers first what is factically and it "actuality," possible; does so by seizing it in whatever is possible for its upon way ownmost in the Anyone, ability-to-be (p. 299; my emphasis) There can be no exit from because the to discover my Anyone source the Anyone is the and inauthentic. Lacking humans would possibilities, as utterly diffuse caprice, "own" of such all a

possibilities

possibilities, of public coherent structuring so much or "overmen" of faith" "knights of any raw basis capacities, captives or choice. for direction to every

precisely authentic both

be not bundles without

momentary

If the Anyone
definitive of what it

is the of life?

locus of all our possibilities

a self, what motivates

and

is is

is to be

Heidegger's

critique

of its way

It is clear that what Heidegger

334
attacking is not the role of the Anyone

CHARLES B. GUIGNON
in constituting concrete

possibilities,
mism

but the way

an and

it tempts us into the unthinking

confor
an of

of being order established

inauthentic insisting

By maintaining "Anyone-self." on the paramount importance and us from

falling
levels

into step with

down our

all its latest fads and trends,

keeps facing

the Anyone
up to our

possibilities from of

unique responsibility
rootless, into the ownmost dispersed grated skidding busy-ness

for our lives. We

one diversion everyday

tend to be dissipated
throwing

and

to another, and we tasks,

ourselves

of Being-toward-death. possibility as an inauthentic and uncentered and coherent one takes as up authentic for of one's

our thereby forget one But whether is Anyone-self the from the or inte actual public then, of a

possibilities of range that

Being-one's-self, life are drawn It would of the

authenticity

interpretations is not

the Anyone. a matter so much

appear, "content"

life as it is of the "style" with which

between what but one rather and authenticity inauthenticity is in the sense of what specific of how one lives.

one lives.
seems

The distinction
on up,

to hinge not one takes possibilities

Ill
To are No say that Dasein is essentially social context own the Anyone, into which then, is to say

that all of its possible ways

drawn from the

of understanding
except my I take over But life,

itself and its world

it is enculturated. possibility a configuration that if authenticity will not "ownmost" into

is uniquely my possibility of articulating roles the social as a whole. life for my meaning refers solely to the "style"

of

it seems then the

of a

concept

be

able to fulfill its methodological role of providing a foundation for For if all possibilities fundamental ontology. of understanding
are drawn from the Anyone, then can there and if the Anyone's to be understanding

of what

it is to be is shot through with misinterpretations

appears us with provide In order to see how of what to embrace no way grasp offers a deeper authenticity it is to be, Heidegger's of

and
the us a

misunderstandings, authentic becoming of Being.

in which

meaning more primordial understanding our expand interpretation "authentic historicity."

then, we must account of

REVISITED HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY" At the beginning

Being of Dasein. and Time there

335

of the fifth chapter of the second division of

is a marked tells shift us in the analysis of emphasis that "the orientation of our (p. 373) in its concentra What analytic" is needed which will

analytic tion on Dasein's is "a more embrace

has

now Heidegger so far remained futurity

'one-sided'"

radical the

as Being-toward-death. to the existential approach of Dasein's happening?its origins will 372-73). account The for the

the-beginning"?and as a whole (pp.

"Being-toward "connectedness of life" of "authentic

characterization

is supposed to fill out the account of the "authentic historicity" happening (Geschehen) of Dasein" (p. 382) by exposing the "sources" of its ways of being and clarifying its possibility of living with
continuity and integrity as a unified self.

Heidegger begins the account of historicity by inquiring into the origins of Dasein's ways of interpreting itself. The possibility
that these could ruled be out: drawn "those from one's stance of towards death have is explicitly possibilities existence which

been factically disclosed are not to be gathered from death" (p. The 383). What then is the source of our factical possibilities?
answer stands 'circulate' remains itself in the same of as before: those the Anyone. of Dasein existence Dasein "under which today" terms possibilities of interpreting way authentic

in the But

(p. 383). the possibilities resoluteness, possibilities Erbe]"

'average' public that it is now evident floating in says, the

Dasein

appropriates

Heidegger of authentic In other

in a "today" Dasein "discloses as from the concrete

In way. unique current factical [aus dem of Dasein's

existing

words, (p. 383). of itself and its world consists in the public understanding possi " over as a "heritage. of the Anyone?but bilities taken The concept is introduced of a "heritage" in contrast to what calls the "tradition." We saw above that our everyday

the heritage "content"

Heidegger

sense of what
concepts this social made

it is to be is preshaped
accessible in the social

by a grid of categories
world. In Heidegger's to us by history.

and

view, is handed To down pre-understanding 'is' its past" is to say that its concrete say that "Dasein (p. 20) are always from its historical and goals projects appropriated culture the guide and are always rails that have along projected

been laid out by the past. The Anyone of these historical possibilities. But
generally conveys this framework

is the bearer and medium the current social world

to us in the

of understanding

336
warped nates that for and our what the most distorted form of a "tradition." according is made

CHARLES B. GUIGNON
The tradition "in such domi a way and 21).

understanding, it 'transmits'

to Heidegger, so inaccessible,

Tradition

that it rather becomes part, our access to those "blocks primordial

proximally concealed" (p.

the categories from which and concepts ['Quellen9] in part quite to us have been drawn" genuinely (p. 21). Caught we of traditional in the "self-evidence" of understanding, ways our the "origins," and "soil" from which have "roots," forgotten possibilities When emerged. claims that Heidegger as a "heritage," its possibilities have authentic then, Dasein can appropriate can that Dasein

'wellsprings' handed down

he means

break through the crust of tradition

the most possibilities pretations disguised gests, Dasein that them primordial of understanding circulating and concealed. recovers course over ways

in order to get in touch with

in its history. These within the inter present but they are usually

of understanding are always public world, In becoming the deeper

in the

authentic, undercurrents and fancies

sug Heidegger of historical of the for "today" its own (Schick it takes and since

meanings and takes being. sal): over As in its

beneath as the

the

fads

fundamental Dasein

resources exists onto

authentically resolute, basic them

historical, "simplified"

as "fate"

the most

Heidegger appropriates is always in a community?since Dasein contextualized the hap of into its life always dovetails the "world-historical pening of a people?its happening" as a "co-happening" with "authentic its happening" This community. is possible "co-happening"

possibilities as its own.

projection it has inherited But

death, from history that observes

only

Heidegger
already the same been

calls Dasein's
guided world and in our

"destiny"

(Geschick):

"Our fates
another

have
in

in advance

one in our Being with resoluteness for determinate

possibili

ties" (p. 384). of understanding On this view, then, our deepest possibilities are drawn from the shared historical possibilities made accessible
in our culture. against the My backdrop that own quest personal of the communal for meaning projection that is only possible of meaning of a one

historical
Heidegger that

people.
says

This indebtedness
"it is not

to history may not be explicit:

in resoluteness

necessary

should explicitly
resoluteness

know the origin of the possibilities

projects itself" (p. 385). In other

upon which
a grasp

words,

REVISITED 337 HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY"

of the heritage when authentic basic possibilities as historical Dasein does as historical, is not have necessary an explicit to resoluteness. of the But its

then

understanding takes authenticity

form

of a "retrieval" or "repetition" Wiederholung) of the possibilities ( that have come before. Understanding itself as implicated in the
same historical to of the has possibilities a stand on the shared in taking of its people. sending a in the footsteps Authentic Dasein follows of "the sole authority . . . the can have free existing of existence" possibilities repeatable obligation been there" destiny take over as the its forebears, Dasein recognizes "Dasein who its

(p. 391).
Far vision from being of authenticity or "individualistic," "subjectivistic" in Being and Time points toward the then, a communal

sense of responsibility
Western for

for realizing goals

implicit at the dawn of

a determinate

Authentic existence has "content" history. its understanding it has penetrated because the traditional of its current world in order to retrieve the enduring interpretation ideals and aims of its "heritage." is understood is dependent It draws source, says, of inquiry itself as historical, meaning out of the question of Being has the the history of that inquiry itself?that order to bring itself into study?in the past, into the full possession of its of inquiry, (pp. 20-21) Even as the indebted of posing the project to the past. Since possible by history,

of Being question human any activity

on and made

it follows
is also dental, Hence

that the activity

of engaging

in fundamental

ontology

historical. ahistorical Heidegger

some not from its findings transcen the work of its predecessors. but from

From the ownmost ontological it follows that the working of inquiring into assignment a historical is, of undertaking the positive of appropriation own most proper possibilities The inquiry into

appropriating stands itself

the meaning of Being has the "assignment" of of ontology it under because history precisely as a product of that history. the

The account of authentic

historicity
us The confirmed

clarifies the way

the

in which
and

authentic enables becoming of fundamental closure ontology. are the hermeneutic of Dasein be consonant that have with been through the most

to determine

confirmation that presuppositions when

Being which

"retrieved" the

breaks

ways primordial from our heritage. This of the tradition concealments

guide to they are found of understanding retrieval, in order

338
to demonstrate concepts, was the supposed of as the our "birth certificates" been of to have

CHARLES B. GUIGNON
our basic ontological in the unpub of the have the

accomplished with the

lished

second part

of Being
history clue" of

and Time,

the "phenomenological
problematic have recovered we will also

destruction Temporality deepest determined historical

understanding the closure investigation

ontology, we (p. 39).15 When of Being in our history, for fundamental the

says Being, Heidegger its true concreteness until

provides that "the we

ontology. bedrock for

Because the

of Being does question have carried the through

of question not achieve process on Heideg structure and in so of

destroying

the ontological
Eclipse

tradition"
of the Self

(p. 26).
focuses as the primarily underlying by Kant, and Time.

Zimmerman's

to identify ger's attempt temporality a project of human existence, partly

inspired of Being

doing
Dasein tried

it tends to highlight
that appears

the more
two

individualistic

conception
As

of

in division

I have

to show, however, limited this conceals the fact perspective is always for Heidegger, the bound with up that, temporality concrete culture. of an ongoing account Zimmerman's history therefore human. overlooked, referring without of what amounts More also tends tends When it to distort the Heidegger's historical dimension to see the of being early conception of Being and Time is as of authenticity concept

is natural

concrete

in a shell to a life encapsulated content. Authenticity calls "a way Zimmerman's the to none."16

Rieff Philip to loyalty

of personal commitments as a version then appears of using all commitments, which of Being and Time

importantly, to obscure such transitional

writings, and his

Heidegger's continuity early as the Introduction toMetaphysics, works in interpreting from his early notion the of "the fact that, our history,

reading between

Zimmerman is quite later writings. right as a shift the in Heidegger's "turn" thought to the later "anti-humanist" anthropocentrism of Being." Heidegger's But he is unable this to account history

history throughout

for remains

writings,

of the two parts of Being 151 have discussed the relation and Time in my essay, "The Twofold Task: Heidegger's Foundational Historicism," in Michael Tulane Zimmerman, ed., The Thought of Martin Heidegger, in Philosophy Studies 32 (1984). 16 The Triumph Uses of Faith After Freud of the Therapeutic: (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 21.

REVISITED HEIDEGGER'S "AUTHENTICITY"

and not that

339

starting Western defines

or China. The of Being," India of, say, "history the stages of with the Greeks and proceeding through a claim on us and which is a history makes thought, us because our relation to it is one of what Gadamer because If we relation calls it are to It can make in the concrete a claim on us

"belongingness." to us speaks to understand

Heidegger's

language later vision

precisely of a "heritage." of an authentic

the history of Being,

of the earlier account of those concept of appropriation When the

Iwould

suggest, we need to see it in the light

historicity as the retrieval and

of authentic

laid out in our history. meanings enduring is severed from the concrete authenticity

historical

context
back into and

in which
the same

it makes

sense,

it is in danger
concerns has so effec

of

lapsing with well-being criticized. tively

amorphous, that self-fulfillment

crypto-religious Zimmerman

The University

of Texas at Austin