Heidegger’s Pursuit of Authenticity in Philosophy

Abstract

The concern with authenticity exhibited by both Heidegger and Wittgenstein applies reflexively to their work: being authentic and philosophizing authentically are deeply intertwined concerns. This chapter focuses on the way in which Heidegger attempts to extricate himself from traditional philosophical problematics, focusing primarily on the problematic of realism and idealism and on the concept of truth. Heidegger develops a method of formal indication by which he tries to direct us toward an ontological understanding without relying on the problematic form of the assertion. However, Heidegger attempts at points to articulate this ontological understanding—most notoriously when he asserts that Newton’s Laws were not true before Newton—in ways that work against him.