Authenticity: Being Oneself
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2024
- The anxiety that we are, in some way, not being ourselves can seem both puzzling and all too familiar. This worry is also an anxiety that has been explored by many of the great philosophers and became in the twentieth century a central theme in existentialism, as the worry that our lives are 'inauthentic'. But what is authenticity? What is to be oneself? And if one isn't oneself, what can one do about it? Denis McManus gives a talk on these issues of authenticity at the University of Southampton a few years ago as part of the Philosophy Café series.
#Philosophy #Existentialism #Heidegger
I would never have wanted to know myself under these conditions. Honestly, I can only resent the hell out of the fact that I was forced to.
What?
Here we go again with the kind of 'difficulty ahead!' warning about a struggler, striver, and a near 'beware!' of their original text(s) (see below). I do have the Max Niemeyer Verlag Tubingen German edition for checks, etc. But I found Heidegger's 'Sein und Zeit' 'Being and Time' as I took my time with it, a wonderful thinking document, and highly recommend it in the Macquarrie and Robinson English trans., for those of us who may have too much time on our hands, etc. etc. and while I listened here, the explaining of texts by the studious, and their (including Denis McManus') enlightened view(s) is fully accepted as an enrichment.
Alienation is no less a danger to authenticity (or self-hood) than is conformity . This is because, by his very nature, man is a social animal. Therefore, those who are alienated from society -- either because of being castigated, exiled, or by means of their own choice -- tend to suffer from deep emotional problems, including losing their grip on reality, and even, some cases, losing themselves.
Alienation is related to conformity.
@@SimpMaker While it is true that being forced to conform -- especially to the point of feeling in danger of losing your own identity can alienate people, conformity is by no means the only cause of alienation. Some people are alienated not by conformity, but rather by being rejected by the group or society, whereas others alienate themselves from society because they suffer severe mental problems.
@@SimpMaker The mental problems that can cause a person to alienate themselves from society are an excessive amount of fear and anxiety, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, and traumatic experiences that cause them to feel anger and hatred towards other people.
@@saimbhat6243 What delusions ? What is the danger ? What would you put in place of what you are calling 'continental philosophy' ? Being specific tends to make you sound less obtuse.
Rubbish.
SOME PEOPLE are social animals, MANY ARE NOT.
It would seem that in order to be oneself - a sovereign self- one would need to be very wealthly. Otherwise you are forced to conform to a varitey of social conventions within different social settings. The job interview demands not only how one is expected to dress but also how one gives the expected answers. What's ironic is when the interviewer tells you to be yourself! 🤣
So being born into a life of leisure frees one up to be oneself. McManus gave some good examples of changing behaviours according to the social context and expected norms. Being a 'good' teacher means you have conformed to the rules of the conventions of the interview and the conventional rules of teaching. Aristotle knew that only a very few would be free to being themselves.
Having F U money allows you to be authentic
@@tunneling-nanotubes Hi, I wasn't making the point that money does not corrupt. far from it. I meant that when you have leisure you have more freedom to being oneself. Neither Plato or Aristotle were poor that means they had plenty of time to invest in study and themselves. Indeed, the 'mystery schools' were only open to those with wealth.
I'm not sure if you are suggesting that all wealthy people lack spiritual awaresness?
Society is not artificial, what is artificial is an isolated man in the state of nature !
Buddy what are u specialised in? Ur words are correct but what if a person is engraved in household tensions , financially dead, been through childhood trauma ,still in trauma, helpless to near ones knowing their condition ,and jobless and chooses to isolate,feel inferior because whose gonna listen to,help to this sad life of an nobody?
@@changeuaself I sympathize with anyone who is in that situation. But, also realize that my sympathy doesn't do anything to help this person. If this person chooses to isolate himself from the rest of society for his own emotional well-being, then I have no problem with that -- especially if it works for him. As for myself, I used to feel that way too, and I used to think that I had to cut myself off from other people. Pink Floyd's The Wall' was, and still is, my favorite album, not just because I like the music, but because it touches on that very theme of feeling you have to cut yourself off from others in order to protect yourself. Listening to this album soothed a lot of the emotional pain and heartbreak that I felt when I was younger. What changed for me was that I met a very special lady with a love for life, and she brought back the joy for life that I was missing. Society can be very hard to deal with, but so can loneliness as well. My statements to which you are replying are merely philosophical points. They are not meant to criticize anyone for any personal choices they make in their own lives. I understand that philosophy is mainly an academic subject that it definitely does NOT have all the answers, and, that whatever truth you find in it is probably because it works for you in your own life. And, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what I say or some philosopher says, it only matters what you believe in your heart is true, and whatever you find in life that works for you !
@@alwaysgreatusa223 What is artificial is an isolated man anywhere. Other than that, I find your first comment to be extremely apt.
@@kuweit My comment refers to the 'state of nature' postulated by Rousseau and other enlightenment philosophers. Are there isolated men anywhere in reality ? There are men who are now in prison who are in solitary confinement. Does that count ? There are probably thousands of loners all over the world who choose to be survivalists and live by themselves in the wilderness away from society. Does that count ? Doesn't really matter, because my point is that society is not actually an artificial construct, but rather, it is an evolutionary development of a certain species of animal termed homo sapien.
@@kuweit Suffice to say, Rousseau's 'state of nature' of men living all alone as individuals, then later deciding by a kind of 'social contract' to join forces and live together, never actually existed. Men are by nature gregarious, cooperative, and clannish. While it is true that men are also competitive by nature, what gets overlooked (sometimes purposely) is that cooperation is no less natural than is competition. Modern society is both cooperative and competitive. Men had to learn to regulate both their acts of cooperation and acts of competition in order to survive as a species -- otherwise, they would have now been extinct (see Neanderthal). It is this evolutionary development of regulating both their cooperative and competitive behaviors that has developed into our modern society with its governments, courts, and commerce, etc.-- hardly artificial !
The truly authentic never seeks for authenticity, for why would it seek what it already is ?
He who defines himself as being against the herd, or above the herd, or even beyond the herd, nonetheless defines himself in terms of the herd.
Slightly disappointed that my plan for this to lull me to sleep has failed. Explicating Heidegger in ways that engage with the notions of contemporary psychology was very helpful. An a little ego boost at the end as I thought of Aristotle just before Denis introduced him😬.
out of the billion available videos, I picked this one to drift off to.... we'll see how it goes
You can tell by the intro to this video the man giving the speech is very Pro Society
The great they of publicness
Just what I needed today ❤
The idea that one only believes something in so much as they act on those beliefs seems obviously false. Do those who are enslaved not believe that they should be free if they don’t act to free themselves from enslavement? There are clearly situations where lack of action for a belief is compatible with the existence of that belief, namely those circumstances where no viable act exists to manifest those beliefs.
thank you, is there a chance automatic closed captions will be enabled?
is it audible?
@@syedadeelhussain2691 sure it's audible, but CC are useful to me, not a native speaker. Thanks to whoever enabled them
Thanks for this
❤
Interesting discussion of questions that really mean a lot in people's lives. I always think of "the they" as "the we." If I conform, then, for example, I read the NYT every morning -- that's what we people do, we reasonably intelligent, educated decent citizens. And I believe every lie in the paper.
In a sense, you are ACTING towards the they.
Its not audible?
Faaark, this guy really should be studying some human psychology. He has NO UNDERSTANDING of human nature or the powers and effects of social conditioning. He's just a name-dropping, very derivative thinker.