The aim of this thesis is to provide an explication and analysis of the existential concept of authentic existence, through an
examination of Sartre, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Buber. It is primarily Sartre's treatment of authenticity, only implicit in his writings,
which this thesis seeks both to make explicit and to defend.
The positions of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Buber are each used to
compare or contrast with key aspects of Sartre's concept of authentic existence, in order to establish the strengths and weaknesses
of the Sartrean position.
Sartre's concept of individual authenticity rests upon an ethics designed to liberate the individual from living in 'bad faith'
by means of a reflective comprehension of the nature of human reality. It is an ethics of self-recovery or authentic existence, having
as its ideal the development of the morally autonomous individual
who chooses to take freedom as his ultimate value.
Sartre also maintains that authenticity requires that we take
the freedom of others, as well as our own, as our goal. At the same
time, however, his discussion of relations with others in Being and
Nothingness is a profoundly negative one, which contends that conflict is the original meaning of 'being-for-others'.
It will be argued that Sartre's theory of groups in Critique
of Dialectical Reason provides an account of how positive social relations are indeed possible within the parameters of his ontology.
The theory of groups thus renders intelligible that aspect of his
concept of authentic existence which requires of us common action
on behalf of the freedom of all.
Finally, Sartre's sociopolitical ideal, or that towards which authentic action is ultimately directed, is identified as a 'direct
democracy'. Such a community would be the concrete embodiment
of a free society of disalienated individuals mutually choosing to
promote each other's freedom. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41442 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Green, Claire Catherine |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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