Eclipse Of Self: The Development of Heidegger's Concept of Authenticity

by Michael E. Zimmerman

Although it is sometimes said that Martin Heidegger’s later philosophy no longer concerned itself with the theme of authenticity so crucial to Being and Time (1927), this book argues that his interest in authenticity was always strong. After leaving the seminary to become a philosophy student, Heidegger began to “de–mythologize” religious themes for his own philosophical purposes. Like the Christian notion of faith, Heidegger’s notion of authenticity involves relinquishing the egotistical self–understanding which blocks our openness for possibilities. Yet authenticity as “resoluteness” includes an element of voluntarism foreign to the idea of faith. Heidegger’s brief engagement with National Socialism (1933–1934) helped him to re–think the Nietzschean concept of will which had influenced his early views on authenticity. Although part of the meaning of resoluteness is to allow things to be revealed, it also suggests that an individual can somehow will to be authentic. After about 1936, Heidegger emphasized that an individual can only be released from egoism (inauthenticity) by a power which transcends him. The abiding theological issue concerning the efficacy of works as against the saving power of grace finds expression in the distinction between resoluteness and releasement.

Genres: Philosophy

357 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing resource for Heidegger. Situates him historically, shows why he's so important, and even makes the very obvious comparisons to Buddhism and Taoism! If you've read some of early Heidegger and some of his later stuff, I think this book would be very understandable and can function as a way to orient deeper study, which is exactly what I plan to do!

[Renxiang Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zimmerman presents in the book an account of the development of the notion of authenticity in Heidegger. Broadly construed, being authentic means, for Zimmerman, being what one "already is" - namely, removed from egoistic illusions of security and self-control, while remaining the open finitude, the constituting nullity (Ab-grund) that lets Being manifest itself.

By examining Heidegger's works as well as his life course, Zimmerman argues 1) that Heidegger's early works bear an overemphasis on the will, or resolution, of the Self in order for it to become authentic, which presumably results from Heidegger's reaction against dogmatic theology (which promotes conformism); and 2) that the sense of authenticity as releasement [Gelassenheit] is already present even in his early works, so that there is only a "maturation" of the concept of authenticity through time instead of radical change or utter abandonment of the concept.

The book is especially inspiring in 1) that it plays elegantly with the peculiar features of absence / transcendence / openness / finitude and, correspondingly, with the fate of Being to be negated, substituted while dimly revealed; and 2) that it links Heidegger's thoughts to thinker such as Nietzsche, Tillich, Kierkegaard and Schelling, while remaining careful on their differences.

However, Zimmerman perhaps also overemphasizes the negative side of releasement, so that he downplays, now and then, the importance of expression / philosophizing. The words should not be forgotten even if they successfully helped us get to the Word, and this is actually evident from the essential nullity of Being. As a result, his comparison of Heidegger to Zen Buddhism seems less plausible. Besides, although Zimmerman is sensitive to horizontal links between different philosophers, sometimes he fails to pay enough attention to the inherent discrepancies between philosophers he uses to explain Heidegger, e.g. those between Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, so that the comparisons ends up somewhat superficial.

[mahatmanto · Rating 2 out of 5]

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