Friday, August 26, 2016

Authenticity

Heidegger's idea of authenticity and unbearable lightness of being is kind of grim in my opinion. Saying that life has no meaning is very discouraging. I do like the idea of being honest with yourself and living your life "authentically" but I think that life does have some sort of meaning. What that purpose is, I have no clue. I just think it'd be hard going through life thinking that you are pointless and that the world will be the exact same without you. I think Heidegger went in the right direction trying to make the idea of the unbearable lightness of being less grim by adding the idea of authenticity, but I also do think that someone can be a good person and make mistakes without having "bad faith".

1 comment:

Unknown said...

While I do agree that Heidegger's concept of there being no meaning in life seems depressing, it depends on how someone looks at it. Certain people, such as Tomas and Sabina see lightness as a good thing, as they are never too committed to one thing and are able to live life without worries and make the most of life. On the contrary, others may see making the most of life as giving it as much meaning as possible. Someone like Tereza attempts to give meaning to even the little things, which at least makes living life seem worth it. Both sides, lightness and weight, have their pros and cons, but in the end it seems more beneficial to live life with weight. In living life with lightness, there are no worries, but there is also no substance. With weight, while there may be more problems and stress, gives life value.