Authenticity in Finitude: Interpretation of Heidegger

This paper organizes Martin Heidegger’s argument for authenticity in Being and Time into a two-step process with two binaries. The first binary is an interpretation for the world, with what Heidegger calls ‘ready-to-hand’ coming prior to ‘present-at-hand.’ The second binary is an interpretation for the self, where he distinguishes the ‘authentic self’ from the ‘they-self.’ With human existence represented as Dasein, or Being-there, Heidegger paints a path for authenticity within the world of relations and the world we live with others. For coherence between the two binaries, we need a reinterpretation of time. The second section of this paper focuses on Dasein’s temporality and how the two binaries could be maintained with their seemingly contradictory relationships to time. The contradiction is resolved by having authentic Dasein’s temporality take priority over the dominant conception of objective linear time. Through this, Heidegger’s unique account of authenticity in finitude is made clear