For Sartre, authenticity is that for which every human being should constantly strive. In the ethical-existential thinking-philosophizing of Sartre, authenticity is offered not as a mere value, but rather as a fundamental value. But how does authenticity take place, according to Sartre? And is it possible?
In the existentialism of Sartre, the human being is defined and announced as a being that constantly endeavors to flee and leave behind a deep and unbearable anguish whose origin is the freedom residing in and deciding its own being; the being of the for-itself.
Through this fleeing, Sartre says, the for-itself is delivered into bad faith. This delivering into bad faith is made possible only through a negating of the freedom dwelling in and determining the being of the for-itself.
To this freedom, from which the for-itself constantly attempts to escape, belongs a possibility as the promise of the whole existential thinking-philosophizing of Sartre, the possibility of making and re-making oneself and one’s projects, paths, and destiny; constantly and repeatedly. “Existence precedes essence” carries within itself this promise as Sartre’s argument against the entirety of the philosophical tradition preceding his existential philosophizing.
According to Sartre, the for-itself is a project that constantly aims toward different possibilities and objectives. One of the aims of this project, Sartre says in Notebooks for an Ethics, is authenticity.
But why is authenticity one of the aims of the for-itself? Sartre offers neither a rationale nor an argument for why authenticity should belong to the aims of the for-itself. Sartre merely assumes that the for-itself is a being that is constantly searching for and aiming toward its authenticity.
Sartre’s view is that because the for-itself is a constant attempt at finding what justifies its own existence in the world, it constantly comes face to face with the freedom residing in its own being and might eventually take it as the ground from which its being, possibilities, and searches arise. Hence, one of the aims of the for-itself, according to Sartre, is acknowledging and realizing that its being is itself freedom.
Sartre’s view depends on the willingness of the for-itself to first realize its own freedom and then acknowledge and accept this freedom by taking it as the foundation of its projects and projections.
In other words, the for-itself must acknowledge that it is radically free and that freedom dwells in and shapes its own being in its entirety. Authenticity, according to Sartre, is this acknowledgement; that is, the acknowledgment that one is completely free and that freedom forms and lies at the heart of one’s own being.
Because in the existential thinking-philosophizing of Sartre freedom and responsibility are linked together and are always thought from out of this togetherness, authenticity also means that the for-itself must accept the responsibility resulting from its radical freedom. In Notebooks for an Ethics, Sartre says that the striving of the for-itself for its authenticity delivers it into experiencing “existential vertigo”.
Existential vertigo: the project appears to reflection in its absolute gratuity. But since reflection wills it, it is recaptured. Except it is recaptured as absolute and a totality without ceasing to be gratuitous. It is this double simultaneous aspect of the human project, gratuitous at its core and consecrated by a reflective reprise, that makes it into authentic existence.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Notebooks for an Ethics
The authentic individual carries and endures an enormous responsibility resulting from the conviction that meaning, values, and purposes should be created for the world. Freedom is realizing that meaning neither emerges from God nor is dependent on metaphysical necessity; freedom is taking one’s being and oneself as the ground from which meaning flows.
Authenticity, for Sartre, is acknowledging one’s radical freedom and complete responsibility for one’s own freedom. The for-itself is freedom, according to Sartre. This is why acknowledging freedom, one’s radical freedom, indicates that one is authentic. This is also why, for Sartre, refusing our freedom means refusing our own being and ourselves. This refusal delivers us into bad faith.
Sartre on Life
In Existentialism Is a Humanism, Sartre says that because “man is nothing else but what he makes of himself” and because “there is no human nature since there is no God to conceive it”, existence must thus precede essence.
“Hell is other people” is perhaps one of Sartre’s most famous maxims, which is frequently quoted and repeated, yet often misunderstood.
We are abandoned in the world because there is no God rendering human existence, life, and the world meaningful and purposeful. Because there is no God, life, existence, and the world lack meaning, value, directions, and purpose.