Keeping our Authenticity
Freedom, authenticity, and the legitimacy of our memories are called to question when one tries to reconcile the complex notions brought forward by two philosophers. Sartre’s notions of authenticity and bad faith call to question the genuine motives behind our actions in the present, but what does that mean about our actions in the past? Can one recover from a past of bad faith, can one bad faith and emerge a changed person with the use of our memories in the work towards authenticity? Or in contrast can someone fall from a past in freedom to one in bad faith because of what one has done in the past? These questions are only made more complex with Strawson’s revisionist theory. Strawson questions the validity of our …show more content…
Facticity can be overemphasized and justified with the justification of their memories. In bad faith one claims the facts of our past carry over into our present and dwells in the facticity. The facts of the past are rendered to be the context we are in, and the context we are confined to. Therefore, one forfeits freedom in the present and reduces them self to that set limitation that they find themselves in. The form of bad faith that uses memories uses them only to limit the present, and provides itself …show more content…
Authenticity is the concept that Sartre offers to be the alternative to bad faith and reveres as “true fidelity to ourselves” (Sartre, 1966). According to other scholars Sartre’s concept of authenticity is “The willed adoption of an attitude in which consciousness accepts its gratuitous freedom and claims authorship and responsibility for all of its actions, whatever its ‘situation’ might be” (Santoni, 1995, p.103). In authenticity one accepts the freedom that they have. They accept all of the responsibilities that come alongside the freedom one has in a situation and doesn’t try to disregard it despite what the situation may be. This is especially important in decision making, because unlike in bad faith there are no justifications or excuses that obscure the opportunities for action that are available through our freedom. “Authenticity demands… the recognition that we are without excuses” (Sartre, 1966, p.34). We take the entirety of our choices into our own hands and accept all repercussions. “Authenticity implies an awareness of our being responsible for the direction of our fundamental project, of our life’s orientation” (Catalano, 1980, p.214). We cannot hand off our life’s circumstance to the context, or facticity nor can we fall to our transcendence. One has freedom and one needs to act upon it, with this freedom, with this authenticity one has control
Freedom, authenticity, and the legitimacy of our memories are called to question when one tries to reconcile the complex notions brought forward by two philosophers. Sartre’s notions of authenticity and bad faith call to question the genuine motives behind our actions in the present, but what does that mean about our actions in the past? Can one recover from a past of bad faith, can one bad faith and emerge a changed person with the use of our memories in the work towards authenticity? Or in contrast can someone fall from a past in freedom to one in bad faith because of what one has done in the past? These questions are only made more complex with Strawson’s revisionist theory. Strawson questions the validity of our …show more content…
Facticity can be overemphasized and justified with the justification of their memories. In bad faith one claims the facts of our past carry over into our present and dwells in the facticity. The facts of the past are rendered to be the context we are in, and the context we are confined to. Therefore, one forfeits freedom in the present and reduces them self to that set limitation that they find themselves in. The form of bad faith that uses memories uses them only to limit the present, and provides itself …show more content…
Authenticity is the concept that Sartre offers to be the alternative to bad faith and reveres as “true fidelity to ourselves” (Sartre, 1966). According to other scholars Sartre’s concept of authenticity is “The willed adoption of an attitude in which consciousness accepts its gratuitous freedom and claims authorship and responsibility for all of its actions, whatever its ‘situation’ might be” (Santoni, 1995, p.103). In authenticity one accepts the freedom that they have. They accept all of the responsibilities that come alongside the freedom one has in a situation and doesn’t try to disregard it despite what the situation may be. This is especially important in decision making, because unlike in bad faith there are no justifications or excuses that obscure the opportunities for action that are available through our freedom. “Authenticity demands… the recognition that we are without excuses” (Sartre, 1966, p.34). We take the entirety of our choices into our own hands and accept all repercussions. “Authenticity implies an awareness of our being responsible for the direction of our fundamental project, of our life’s orientation” (Catalano, 1980, p.214). We cannot hand off our life’s circumstance to the context, or facticity nor can we fall to our transcendence. One has freedom and one needs to act upon it, with this freedom, with this authenticity one has control