NWUBE SIMEON NNANNA (Ph.D).
DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES
EBONYI STATE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION,
IKWO, NIGERIA.
Abstract.
It has been widely held for centuries that one ought to “be oneself,” an imperative often
referred to as authenticity. But the meaning of authenticity has remained a contested
issue among philosophers and largely shapeless in most people’s minds. In order to make
sense of this compelling idea, one must reconcile authenticity with the metaphysics of
selfhood and identity. In all of its applications, ‘authenticity’ refers to a convergence
between how something presents itself and what it actually is. Yet the marriage of
authenticity, with its essentialist structure, and personal identity, with its built-in
temporal openness, is prima facie dubious. Authenticity appeals to something true and
unchanging, but a person’s identity evolves throughout his/her life. Furthermore, the
ideal of “being oneself” requires that it also be possible to be “not oneself,” but it is
difficult to explain how any individual could be other than who he/she is. It is argued in
this paper that previous theories of authenticity especially that of Heidegger and Sartre,
have not adequately negotiated these structural requirements. This is because of their
inability to investigate who one is and how certain choices are more or less essential to
our selves. This paper pursues such an investigation by arguing that authenticity must
account for change in personal identity as well as the social and interpretive dimensions
of selfhood without forfeiting the criterion that there is something true about who we are.
The paper therefore, argues that we live authentic life by acting in accordance with our
necessary dispositions in a certain situation.
Keywords: Authenticity, Inauthenticity, Selfhood, Essentialism, Identity.
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