Inscriptions (Jan 2022)
The irreconcilable self in Heidegger’s logic of authenticity and event
Abstract
In Heideggerian ontology, the way Dasein is grounded in beyng (Seyn) as event (Ereignis) is a matter of debate. In this article, I address this within a specific scope: I develop an interpretation of the logic of authenticity and inauthenticity in Dasein’s ‘selfhood’ and the relation of this logic to that of the domain of propriety (das Eigentum) that forms part of the structure of beyng as event. I argue authenticity and inauthenticity are logically inextricable from one another: authenticity is structurally problematized by inauthenticity such that the latter co-constitutes the former. This entails that becoming more authentically oneself means reducing alienation not from an idealized authentic state of ‘self,’ but from the logic of co-constitutive irreconcilability between authenticity and inauthenticity. This logic is more originarily described by domains of propriety and alienation in the event. The logic of the event forms the pre-personal ground of Dasein’s intrinsically problematic selfhood.
