[SydPhil] Aaron Wendland at UNSW

[Markos Valaris]

You are invited to a Philosophy Seminar at UNSW.

Speaker: Aaron Wendland, University of Tartu (Estonia)

Title: Authenticity, Truth, and Cultural Transformation: A Critical Reading of John Haugeland's Heidegger

Time: Tuesday 15 March, 12:30 pm

Venue: UNSW Kensington Campus, Morven Brown 209

Abstract:

Against existentialist interpreters who read Heidegger's account of authenticity as a theory of human freedom, John Haugeland takes Heidegger's talk of authenticity to be a key feature of Heidegger's fundamental ontology: i.e., Heidegger's attempt to determine the meaning of being through an analysis of Dasein or human beings. Briefly, Haugeland argues that the self-understanding achieved when we take responsibility for our existence by choosing a particular way of life involves understanding what it means for entities to be within that way of life. ‘In knowing how to be me,’ as he puts it, ‘I must know how to deal with the entities amidst which I work and live.’ Thus, authenticity entails ‘getting the entities themselves right.’ Haugeland also claims that taking responsibility for our existence entails the possibility of giving up our current way of life when it fails to get entities right, and therefore he sees authenticity as the basis of cultural transformation. Given the unorthodoxy of Haugeland’s ontological interpretation of authenticity, I begin this paper with a sketch of Haugeland's position but then put forward several objections to it. Specifically, I argue that Haugeland's emphasis on 'getting entities right' fails to appreciate type of truth at stake in our authentic existence, and thus fails to adequately describe the basis of cultural transformation. Finally, I offer an alternative to Haugeland’s ontological interpretation of authenticity and cultural transformation through an existential-ontological reading of Thomas Kuhn.




Markos Valaris
Lecturer in Philosophy
Associate Editor, Australasian Journal of Philosophy
University of New South Wales
Phone: +(61) 2 9385 2760 (office)
https://unsw.academia.edu/MarkosValaris

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