Title:

Authenticity and Death in Being and Time

Author(s):

Shaw, Beau Carmel

Thesis Advisor(s):

Carman, Taylor

Date:

2012

Type:

Dissertations

Department:

Philosophy

Permanent URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14686

Notes:

Ph.D., Columbia University.

Abstract:

My dissertation offers a critique of the concept of authenticity that Martin Heidegger develops in Being and Time. The concept of authenticity has been critiqued for many reasons--mainly for political, moral, and ideological reasons. My dissertation develops, on the other hand, a conceptual critique: I argue that the concept of authenticity is a paradoxical concept. I argue, more precisely, that it is paradoxical, as the concept of authenticity proposes, for a person to confront, transparently and determinedly, his or her own death, while, at the same time, being able to be an individual--understanding him or herself as an individual, and making autonomous choices. In offering this critique, I provide interpretations of some of the basic concepts in Being and Time that break from conventional interpretations or are new. For example, I interpret the concept of inauthenticity from the perspective of the psychoanalytic idea of mania. Ultimately, however, I provide philosophical, or conceptual reasons to resist a concept with clearly problematic moral and political implications.

Subject(s):

Philosophy

Item views:

115

Metadata:

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