Inauthentic Existence Research Articles

Conceptualization of everyday life in philosophy of M. Heidegger and R. Barthes

The article is devoted to the analysis of the concepts of everyday life in the works of M. Heidegger and R. Barthes. Based on textual and comparative analysis, the author offers her own interpretation of the meaning of the concept of "everyday life" in "Being and Time". In the first section of the study, the author examines Dasein and some structures of its existence, the concept of "das Man" as the basis of inauthentic existence, two modes of Dasein's existence and their connection with the meaning of everyday life. Particular attention is paid to Barthes's work "How to Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of Some Everyday Spaces", which is a collection of his lectures, his concept of "idiorrythmie" in connection with the study of the structure of everyday life. Barthes continues the work begun by Heidegger, but tries to establish and reveal the cultural and ideological influence on human everyday life. To accomplish the tasks, the author uses a methodology that is based on the methods of textual and comparative analysis, as well as the problematization of concepts. The main conclusions of the conducted research are, firstly, the identification of three possible meanings of "everyday life" in the work "Being and Time", secondly, the disclosure of the discourse on everyday life in the framework of R. Barthes's philosophical works, thirdly, an attempt to identify the cultural and ideological influence on the grasp of everyday life by man. Thus, it was established that everyday life itself, as an a priori-ontological condition of human existence, is unchangeable, but only the perception of everyday life by man or his way of grasping everyday life in consciousness changes. In this sense, Barthes continues and brings to a new level the work begun by Heidegger, but he starts not from individual consciousness, but from the life of the "I" with others in everyday life as a space of idiorrhythmes. The discovery of common features of reflections on everyday life in Heidegger and Barthes prompts the author to trace the influence of philosophical texts on changes in the subject of the humanities.

Подлинное существование человека по учению преподобного Симеона Нового Богослова

The article reveals the main aspects of the teaching of St. Simeon the New Theologian about deification from the perspective of the problems of authentic and inauthentic human existence. An analysis of this teaching is carried out in comparison with the thoughts of some representatives of modern philosophy and sociology. The concept of mysticism is also revealed, the teaching of modern philosophy about the authenticity and inauthenticity of human existence is assessed, and the concepts of existence and deification are differentiated. The article provides characteristics of the authentic and inauthentic existence of a person from the position of the Christian teaching of St. Simeon and from the point of view of some representatives of philosophy and sociology. It is concluded that existence and deification are not the same thing; it is said that inauthentic existence manifests itself in the form of imitation and oblivion, but genuine existence — in the vision of truth, “divine light”, God. The main sign of genuine existence is human repentance and questioning (prayer) (Heb. 5:7–9), and of inauthentic existence — pride and oblivion, which were the reasons for the fall of the first man Adam.

Repetition as a Path to Authentic Existence in Kierkegaard’s Work

Thesis. The aim of the paper is to interpret Kierkegaard's concept of repetition as a way of creating and experiencing authentic existence in an environment that is set up to repeat this same, inauthentic content of consciousness. Concept. Repetition is associated with determinism and represents social stagnation. Repetition creates the conditions for an inauthentic existence. The article offers an interpretation of Kierkegaard's concept of repetition, which is the repetition of another and produces authentic existence. Results and conclusions. Repetition automatically produces of the same. The repetition of one's choice of oneself is a process of creating spirit and individuality, which is a fundamental principle of authentic existence. Creating an authentic personality is one of the ways to solve the current crisis in society, which is associated with an inauthentic experience of existence, abdication of responsibility and repetition of lies. Cognitive value. The postmodern society associated with the use of the media is not the cause of social disorientation. It is a means that an individual uses to repeat the same. The social environment and magic themselves are not negative, the negative is the inauthentic attitude of a person to them.

Explicating Martin Heidegger's "Dasein" as being-in-the-world

In a bid to carry out the philosophical analysis of man, Heidegger employed the term "dasein" which is in line with his characteristic philosophical system. Meanwhile, Heidegger invented various terminologies in his existential analysis of human existence. The human existence posited for him two possible modes of existence: authentic and inauthentic modes of existence. In authentic existence, man fully attained consciousness of the self which leads to self-realization and eventual self-actualization and fulfillment. On the contrary, inauthentic existence cripples an individual person within the ambiance of "they" and the individual's ownmost potentiality-for-being remains in the "they". Nevertheless, Heidegger postulates that although man is thrown into the world with all its facticity and limitations, yet he has all the possibilities of attaining an authentic existence or decides to remain in inauthenticity of existence. The writer primarily focuses on the methodological approach of philosophical appraisal as a necessary measure to perfect objective of the study. The researcher finally comes to a conclusion that man is a being in the world in the midst of unavoidable limitations and facticity.

Anxiety and Salvation. A Soteriological Miniature

Inspired both by the phenomenological thought of Karol Tarnowski and Józef Tischner and the personalist theology of Czeslaw Bartnik, the article fits into contextual soteriology which deliberately uses the method of correlation. The aim of this article is to present the Christian meaning of salvation in the context of one of the most moving existential experiences, that is the experience of anxiety (Angst). The indelible phenomenon of anxiety raises important soteriological questions: Who or what can bring the fullness of salvation to men and women? In what circumstances is the experience of salva­tion possible to the human being who is called an “anxious existence”? The first part of the article shows the essential difference between anxiety and fear (in contrast to fear, the matter of anxiety is real but indeterminate). The second part presents an ambivalent character of anxiety (anxiety can lead to despair or to salvation) and human attempts to overcome anxiety through falling into an inauthentic existence (a utopia of “salvation by fashion”). The third part characterizes an “eschatological conscience” (a con­science filled with anxiety of tragic finality) and its antithesis in the form of a “soteriological conscience” (a conscience which is open to the possibility of salvation coming from God). The last part of the article argues that the phenomenon of authentic interpersonal encounter is a necessary condition to experi­ence the salvation coming from God in Christ.

Authentic Existence: Bridging Phenomenology and Stoicism

The aim of this article is to provide comparative research of the concept of authentic existence in Stoicism and Phenomenology. The analysis in the article is carried out by comparing select authors’ understanding of a few key concepts which appear to be the most alike: authentic and inauthentic existence, personal renewal, seeking cosmologic framework for ethics, being part of community, and the role of death in shaping awareness of authentic existence. The analysis concludes that there are various degrees of convergence in all concepts considered in the article, which allows the argument that despite substantial differences between philosophies, concepts of authentic existence of Stoicism and Phenomenology at times have compatible aspects, and even complement each other.

A QUEST FOR IDENTITY: AN ONTOLOGICAL SURVEY OF KAFKAESQUE WORLD

Purpose of the Study: Franz Kafka is a much-debated existential writer who portrays existential traumas prevalent in his era. This research unfolds identity-related issues present in an existential journey of characters. Those are usually discussed in terms of existence and being. Identity formation, in an existential narrative, is seen in the process of becoming.
 Methodology: This paper is an interpretive phenomenological study to unearth the phenomenon of identity. Heidegger's interpretive phenomenology, along with Sartre's ontological framework, will be used to analyze Kafka's two novels, The Trial and The Castle. Yet, his book, Amerika, is left as it is considered unfinished.
 Findings: The Kafkaesque world pictures the traumas of the existential world, and this study mainly focuses on the phenomenon of identity, which is in constant flux in these ever-changing dimensions of the existential journey. Authentic and inauthentic existence, good and bad faith, is essential binaries in evaluating the identity of any character at any given instance.
 Application of the Study: This study will contribute to the understanding of characters of the Kafkaesque world in the light of the identity issues from an ontological perspective. As characters of Kafka are constantly striving to achieve good faith and trying to abandon inauthentic existence to attain harmony with their existence.
 Novelty/Originality of the Study: Kafka has been studied for many existential perspectives, yet this study explores the phenomenon of identity embedded in the existential narrative. Identity is usually sought in relation to discourse and postcolonial studies while discussing the Kafkaesque world. Yet, in this research, identity-related issues have been coupled with existential and ontological processes going in the fictional narrative of Kafka.

J. W. Goethe: The Way of Life and Philosophy of Art

Is it possible today, within the framework of the history of philosophy, to reconstruct the life path of one of the philosophers, resorting to the recipes of subsequent researchers — especially when these followers did their creative works a couple of centuries after those who they should describe? Today empiricism dominates in the humanities: flat facts are grasped on a large scale and summed up in everyday spaces, and the results are correct only here and now. It is the way to write the biographies of the “big masses”. But some geniuses — those who live “in isolation” — not relying on standards, not laying flat, unwillingly turning their lives back, rising above the bustle. To what extent can one describe this path in the manner of existentialism — moving from inauthentic existence to borderline situations and, further, to genuine existence, which was never properly built?

Семантика сюжета инициации в малой прозе Ю. Фельзена

The paper examines the plot of initiation in the stories of the young émigré writer Yu. Felzen as a continuation of the story of the hero of his novel trilogy. In the short stories of the late 1930s, the initiation of the hero-emigrant that was reduced in the novels is found to be associated with a situation of death, provoking his personal and literary development. The plot of the story “The changes” allows correlating it with the archetypal plot of initiation: the hero, having survived a severe illness, surgery, and the departure of his beloved, seems to be moving towards gaining new consciousness, towards writing. However, considering the stories following “The changes” allows revealing the reduction of the hero’s initial transformation. The plot of the story “The repetition of the past” shows how “changes” turn out to be a “repetition” of past life situations for the hero, and he evades the existential existence. The stories “The composition” and “The figuration” confirm the conclusion about the failed initiation of the hero. The work of Russian emigrants as extras on the set of the film “The figuration” is the author’s metaphor for the fate of the Russian emigration. The author’s concept of “the repetition of the past” is the repetition of life situations in reality without being able to change anything and follow the geniuses in creative work. According to Felzen, an emigrant is doomed to adapt and repeat in the inauthentic existence of life the situations that happened to him in another culture and at a different age “The composition.” Emigration does not replace a person with another one. Neither does it form his self-sufficiency.

“Don’t go picking apples with the devil”: the myth of Faust in the works of Eduardas Mieželaitis

This article analyzes the reflection on the myth of Faust in the work of Eduardas Mieželaitis (1919–1997). The author’s initial hypothesis that the interpretation of this myth can be used as another argument for revealing the poet’s dramatic feelings and self-reflection of inauthentic Soviet existence is tested. Together with other signs of existential self-abuse (such as the metaphors of “the ringed bird” and “the masked word”), this could help answer the question of whether the description of the 1920s generation (Alfonsas Nyka-Niliūnas, Bronius Krivickas, etc.) as “tragic” would fit Mieželaitis. Intertextuality is the best way to describe the nature of the analysis and socio-criticism would describe the interpretation of the results.E. Mieželaitis was (and still is) one of the most intertextual Lithuanian authors. The use of the “alien word” in his texts was a conceptual position of the poet’s creative consciousness. For him the world’s culture has become a central topic, and his texts have been occupied by the masters of arts and sciences of antiquity, Renaissance, or New Age, as well as modern European authors, Oriental classics, Bible quotations, paraphrases, allusions and other forms of culture. For the poet, Goethe’s Faust is one of such foundational texts, even if the Soviet era did not favor the “myths of the great contemplation” (Vytautas Kubilius). The forever relevant myth of Faust raises a fundamental question of person’s life choice – what one is prepared to sacrifice for one’s purpose, and what the results of that “sacrifice” are. But in the Soviet times Mieželaitis did not focus on this myth as a “symbol of the duality of human’s nature” – his human is rather one-dimensional and monolithic, full of positive energy directed towards technological progress and an absolute belief in the cognitive powers of man. This is the exact aspect that Faust embodies in Mieželaitis’ works, as if it was his “new man”, the product of the Enlightenment era. Mieželaitis did not care about the moment of negotiations between Faust and Mephistopheles – for him there could easily be no Mephistopheles. However, in late works (Postskriptumai, 1986; Gnomos, 1987; Laida, 1992), where the poet reflects on his life and creative path, there are many signs of disillusionment with the myth of human omnipotence as the results of his labor have turned against him – he wanted to create a heaven, but got a hell in the form of Hiroshima. It is at this point that Mephistopheles dominates the duet with Faust, but in general they have both become a “common place” and their function is limited by the text’s aesthetic figurativeness.My conclusion is that eventually the rich allusions to Faust in Mieželaitis’ works did not translate into reflections on the essence or meaning of being – he was not concerned with the problematics of human’s choices, duality, or contradictions. Thus, my initial expectation that the interpretation of the Faust myth may be another argument for revealing the poet’s dramatic feelings and self-reflection of inauthentic existence in the Soviet times was essentially not confirmed. And that could have been another argument for adding him to the social group of the 1920s.On the other hand, looking from the distant present, it is my opinion that Mieželaitis is still a part of the tragic generation, as the whole generation – whether they retreated to the West, or remained in Soviet Lithuania, collaborated or resisted – became hostages of the Second World War and the Soviet occupation.

Życie pęknięte w "Notatkach z Podziemia" Dostojewskiego

This article is dedicated to a philosophical interpretation of Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground. In contrast to the existential interpretation proposed by Shestov (in Philosophy of tragedy) the author defends the thesis that Dostoevsky’s novel has to be interpreted from the perspective of modernity, and the tragedy of his hero, the underground man, has to be interpreted in categories of alienation and inauthentic existence. From that perspective the divide between normal life and underground life expresses the fundamental contradiction of the modern world. The author indicates the proximity between Dostoevsky’s and Kierkegaard’s and Nietzsche’s analyses of modernity. He then shows that Dostoevsky contrasts the arbitrariness of the underground man to a deterministic, scientistic vision of the world and makes it an important premise of his understanding of an authentic existence based on freedom and faith.

The Concept of Authentic and Inauthentic Existence in the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger: The ‘Quarrel’ of Communitarians and Libertarians

The everyday use of the term ‘authenticity’ tends to mean ‘real’, ‘genuine’ or ‘true’, and ‘inauthentic’ as ‘fake’, ‘fraud’ or ‘impostor’. These terms are more value-judgments with something inherently better than ‘inauthentic’.The idea of authentic wishes to liberate the individuals from the constraints of their own socio-historical limitations; and to establish being as limitless potential, where we are free to be whatever we want,unconstrained by the values of instrumental or calculative thought prized by social exigencies and ideologies. It means that we have to use our potentialities as free Beings to overcome unfavourable circumstances,fight against, or protest against the ugly situation, but as ‘authentic-being, we at the same time ‘inherit and choose’ our own possibilities. So in transcending our socio-historical condition,our aim should be to be free from constraints, free from ‘the-they’ and be true to who we are.This paper holds brief for the Libertariansand liberals and supports the view that individual choice is important. But then, the community is indispensable in defining and shaping individuals in the light of communitarians.

The Status of Anxiety (Angst) in Bolesław Prus’s The Doll: Figures of Speech, Metaphors and Places of Inderminacy

Summary The article argues that anxiety (a form of existential Angst) is a basic mood that shapes the experiences of all the characters, including Stanisław Wokulski, in Bolesław Prus’s The Doll (1887–1889). The term occurs in the text of the novel itself both explicitly (most often as part of various phrases) and implicitly. The article focuses primarily on symbolic representations of anxiety and its suppression. This is done by means of metaphors, topoi and a system of cultural and social codes that make their appearance in the novel in a condensed form as dynamic figures (e.g. a stone, a shadow, or a mirror). They are also introduced by means of a juxtaposition between the experience of anxiety and attempts to cope with it, to enforce a ‘state of calm’, an illusory existential balance. In his reading of the novel the author of this article draws on Martin Heidegger’s concept of anxiety (Angst) and his distinction between authentic and inauthentic existence in Being and Time; he also draws on the latest developments in criticism, especially the so-called affective turn.

The Tragedy of Existence in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground: An Approach to Sartre’s Existentialism

The tragedy of existence that appears in Fyodor Dostoevsky‘s novel entitled Notes from the Underground is analyzed by applying Jean-Paul Sartre‘s existentialism. The tragedy of man existence is originated from dualism of man freedom. It can be analyzed by applying the concept of absolute freedom which underlies man desire to achieve an ideal existence and the facticities that follow the freedom. Qualitative method that is based on Sartre‘s concept of engagement is applied to describe author‘s involvement as a speaker in literary work. Text is treated as a significant discourse, because words are not merely an object; but the signifiers that consist of meanings, issues, ideas, social situation in specific period. The result of the analysis shows that individual absolute freedom creates possibility to become God toward their own self to conduct acts as well as to recognize the aspects that prohibit them to do so. Man‘s individual freedom tries to surpass the limit, but eventually fails to realize it because of conflict among their consciousness. As the result, man fails to transcend their existence facticities because of other‘s freedom. At the end, it leads to tragedy that forms alienation in inauthentic existence.

Beyond the academic’s dilemma: Transdisciplinary and existential perspectives of re-enchantment

The purpose of this article is to stimulate debate about the developing paradoxes and dilemmas facing the university academic. This article argues that academics are increasingly being steeped in an inauthentic existence due, at least partly to, egocentrism and sociocentrism. A modest transdisciplinary- existential analytical framework is applied as an intellectual method to reflect on the prevailing monological perspectives stifling the role of academics, in working towards building a more sustainable future. Using concepts such as the subject, facticity and transcendence, the article investigates the dialectical tensions between some of these monological perspectives and proposes avenues to create new possibilities to progress the role of the academic. The article argues that the multilogical perspectives of transdisciplinary thinking and the empowering perspectives of existential thinking can provide academics with the necessary conceptual tools to transcend egocentrism and sociocentrism. While it is likely that new contradictions will emerge as a result of this synthesis, open-minded academics are urged to ignite their imaginative powers and take up the challenge of creating and acting on new possibilities. A transdisciplinary-existential dialectical approach can provide a richer understanding of present dilemmas in academia and the world, and suggest more satisfying paths to a sustainable future.

Von der Kulturkritik der „Menge“ zur existenzialen Analytik des „Man“

Abstract The article examines the influence of Kierkegaard’s understanding of “the crowd” (Mængden) on Heidegger’s conception of “the one” (das Man). Even though a detailed analysis reveals striking similarities in their phenomenological descriptions, a fundamental difference between the two accounts can hardly be overlooked. Whereas Kierkegaard considers “the crowd” a contingent condition of his own authorship, Heidegger takes “the one” to be a necessary component of the structure of Dasein as such. This not only leads to divergent understandings of the relation between authentic and inauthentic existence, but it also and ultimately points to a fundamental difference in terms of the basic anthropological premises underlying and guiding Kierkegaard’s and Heidegger’s work as a whole. In order to historically contextualize the present study, the crucial intermediary role of the translator, critic and author Theodor Haecker will also be specified

Care and Desire: Ontological Concepts in Heidegger and Deleuze and Guattari

In Anti-Oedipus Deleuze and Guattari state: “There is only desire and the social, and nothing else”. This certainly seems, prima facie, to be an ontological claim. Can it be understood as such? In what sense is there only desire and the social and nothing else? Is desire a being or a becoming? Is it the same or different? Is it foundational or a multiplicity? Deleuzian ontology is an ontology of immanence and multiplicity, and desire, as desiring-production, is productive and not the desire of lack. In this paper I propose to evaluate how the claim that “there is only desire and the social, and nothing else” can be understood ontologically and compare and contrast Deleuze and Guattari’s ontology of immanence and desire to Heidegger’s fundamental ontology of care, anxiety, and being-unto-death. In both Heidegger and Deleuze it can be clearly discerned that they are concerned with freedom and authenticity, and that if one looks at Heidegger’s take on authentic Being and Deleuze and Guattari’s schizoanalysis -- which aims to liberate even the unconscious from structures of domination --, then the bringing together of these profound but quite different thinkers will seem apposite. Heidegger's concern with authentic Being and Deleuze and Guattari's attempts to trace the structure of the unconscious and the nature of desire and how it is invested in the social field are both attempts to analyze why we can be not free and how we can free ourselves from structures the keep us in an inauthentic existence.

Authentic living and resource control in Africa: the experience of the Niger delta region of Nigeria

The people of the Niger Delta have been in turmoil over the years, since the discovery of oil in that area in 1956. And since the indigenous government took over the oil rich land through its foreign agents the multinational companies, there has been serious agitations by the civil right and environmental activists against this occupation that has caused untold hardship to the people through the degradation of the environment in terms of oil spillages and pollution. Consequently, the non-challant posture of the Nigerian federal government over this situation had driven most people into inauthentic existence, hence the issue of militancy in the region arose from here. This paper examines these issues while submitting that authentic living as an existential imperative could be a solution to the lingering crisis in the Niger Delta, and the thrust of this paper is that Jean Paul Sartre’s existentialism becomes the panacea to authentic existence. Key terms: Niger Delta, Resource control, authentic living, Existentialism.

Weak subjectivity, trans-subjectivity and the power of event

This article begins with Gedankenexperiment proposed in The Adventure of Difference by Gianni Vattimo: Following his suggestion to read Heidegger’s fundamental ontology in terms of Nietzsche’s TheBirth of the Tragedy, we attempt to reinterpret the distinction of the authentic and inauthentic existence in the light of the difference between the Dionysian and Apollonian element, which brings us also to a new view on the existential finitude, individuality and co-existence with others. In the background of these existential features we discover the notion of event that breaks the ecstatic unity of temporality and marks the hermeneutical continuity of existence by the radical discontinuity. The image of existence exposed to the power of event is further elaborated with the help of Henri Maldiney who has introduced into the frame of the fundamental ontology the concepts of trans-possibility and trans-passibility that express the existential openness to the event. Such a reformulation of the fundamental ontology, however, brings us into the sphere of heteronomous thought that, instead of preserving its essential autonomy, unity and integrity, becomes other in its relation to the otherness that is encountered in the event.

A Experiência do Tempo nos Zollikoner Seminare de Heidegger

Abstract This paper seeks to understand Heidegger’s phenomenological analysis of the time experience in Sein und Zeit, from the formal point of view of the Care-structure, and in the Seminars of Zollikon, where time is described as world-time in its fullness. Aimed is to show that the early anthropological reception of his major work of 1927 by some of his pupils, like Löwith, who detected similarities with Psychoanalysis, is somehow strengthed by Heidegger himself later on, as he comes with Medard Boss to develop Daseynsanalysis as a metaonlogical understanding of humans life in health and pathology. Illness as privation of health will be seen as the failure of inauthentic existence. And the full, ecstatical experience of time will be shown as the proper or authentic one, being-in-the-world as well as within the psychoanalytical session and interpretation.