Heidegger’s idea of authenticity is that we can live in mode that moves away from, transcends, or in some way reflectively challenges the inauthentic mode. It is not about pursuing some kind of inner, true self that is separable from one’s historicity and imbedded connections. It is a different kind of world relatedness; it is a different kind of involvement in living. Yet it goes beyond our non-reflective absorption into the world of things. It goes beyond the sort of fleeing from our anxieties that we experience in our everyday routines and habits. We avoid the responsibility of having to make something of our lives within the context of finitude–that we are going to die. Thinking beyond roles and habits brings us face to face with our own finitude, with nothingness, with the terror of the possibility of non-existence.

¶ 11:53 AM