One of the greatest philosophical questions that many have sought out to answer, is what is it to be? The German philosopher Martin Heidegger based a large amount of his life to answer this question. His book “being and time” that took a deep dive into this question, would later get viewed as one of the most profound written texts of European philosophy ever.
Heidegger was born on September the 26th, 1889, with his philosophical development being ignited after reading the works of Aristotle and Brentano, with Aristotle’s ideas of metaphysics, to know what it is that unites all possible modes of being that started Heidegger’s obsession of what is was to be a human. Heidegger would spend many years teaching, one of the University’s he taught at, was that of Marburg, these were described as brilliant years by the people of University, building up a strong reputation as having an excellent mind.
After his teaching years, he started to write his book, seeing the state of ‘being’ as something we have become disconnected with over time. Human ‘being’ is different to any other kind of being as he recognised humans as having the ability to reason, unlike other animals that just had their senses and instincts, and that therefore part of being a human, was to live authentically. With living an inauthentic life being less than. So what does he mean by authenticity?
Having an authentic life, is constantly questioning the way the world works in the period of time you were born into. We didn’t ask for this life, but got born into it anyway, we never chose what historical era it would be in, it just so happened to be the 20th or early 21st century for us. We are therefore expected to adapt our way of living to how society and culture at the time of our being alive want and socialise us into. But the way this is, isn’t necessarily right. It has changed so much in the 200,000 years we have been on this planet, the chances of the way it is now being the absolute best is therefore unlikely, being filled with a web of illusions. So to be authentic, we must constantly question everything around us, rather then just accepting it to be what we are told it is, confronting the illusions, rather then getting distracted by them, because in doing so, is what it is to be a human being, however according to Heidegger, it is something we have lost over the years. When we spend time figuring out a problem at work, say for example, you are a programmer and are trying to fix a bug in your code, Heidegger would say that what you are doing is ‘calculative thinking’, which is a strong characteristic of Western civilisation, with the other mode of thinking being “meditative thinking”, which was a strong characteristic of ancient Greek philosophy and is far more rare in today’s society.
Calculative thinking is something he defines as being based on the desire to control and manipulate the world around us, having a focus on efficiency, productivity and quantification. Seeing the world as a collection of objects that can be measured, analysed and manipulated for our benefit and is the type of thinking responsible for the rise of modern science and technology, allowing for significant control over the natural environment.
Meditative thinking on the other hand, is characterised by a focus on contemplation, reflection and the search for meaning. Being concerned with understanding the world in a deeper way, rather than to just manipulate it for our own purposes, seeing everything as a mystery to be explored, instead of a collection of objects to be controlled. Being the thinking that was predominant in ancient Greek philosophy, like that of Marcus Aurelius, Zeno and Aristotle, who sought to understand the world and ourselves.
Heidegger says that calculative thinking has become so dominant in Western civilisation, that it has eclipsed meditative thinking, alienating us from the deeper, more meaningful aspects of life, instead making us more transfixed on technical jargon, always looking to improve productive efficiency.
In order to regain the sense of connection with the world and meaning, Heidegger believed that we needed to cultivate this meditative mode of thinking, developing a sense of wonder and curiosity towards understanding the world better, always questioning what we do and why we do it, and acknowledging that not everything can be explained by calculative thinking, and thus living an authentic life in this way.
We are in a constant state of change and need to learn what things to accept, and what things to reject, evaluating everything around us. And to therefore live an inauthentic life, is to accept the facticity of the things we are told, leaving everything unquestioned, following the chatter we hear from other people. If you do live this way, you have lost what it is to be human, as what makes us different from any other animal, is our ability to reason. Inauthentic people give up on the freedom that is given to them, and let others make their choices instead. Getting caught in the web of illusions, making you not an individual, but a herd creature. Inauthenticity to Heidegger is a kind of nothingness, where authenticity, is able to add something to the world.
An authentic life is also achieved by giving up the need to try and impress people who never really liked you anyway, and our desire for social validation. Instead remembering that one of the only guarantees of our life, is that we will one day die, and that this certainty should bring a sense of urgency to search for our own individual potential. Exploring all life’s possibilities in order to become the most authentic version of ourselves, making it a life well lived. Steve Jobs put it perfectly in a speech he did at Stanford University. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Inauthentic people pretend they are not going to die, reducing their urgency as a consequence.
Heidegger is often criticised however, as he ended up serving some time as a Nazi until it’s dismantlement at the end of the second world war, contradicting his ideas of thinking for yourself by questioning the structure around you, as he joined one of the most indoctrinated groups of people in history. His attitude towards the Jews and holocaust remained in near total silence in his writings and teachings so is hard to understand his full motives, although it was known, that he felt regretful for his political engagement and rectorship, calling it “the greatest stupidity of his life.” Many professionals believed that his involvement in the Nazi party was a personal error, rather then something that should invalidate his philosophy or effect it. After all, he mentions how difficult living an authentic life can be, whilst he may have taught the ideas, that doesn’t make him perfect.
It’s easy to tell yourself that you live an authentic life, and it’s often not as black and white as he’s inauthentic and I’m authentic, but instead there is more of a wide spectrum of varying degree. You may be authentic in some areas, but in others, you are completely in acceptance of the way that is shown to you. You need to earn freedom by becoming more authentic and it is your responsibility to commit as much as possible to an authentic life, not just being something you are half in and half out of. I’d be curious to see what things you have come to the realisation of, that goes against what is traditionally taught in the comments below.
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