How To Be Yourself

Who are we? How do we find out? What is it to find our authentic selves? What can we learn from the history and philosophy of authenticity?
Today, supposedly, we’re free. Free, to do what makes us happy, to be anything we strive to be, to choose our own paths. We even feel free from parts of ourselves - that our emotions are something separate from us, that there’s a real us beneath them, a supra-inner rational core that transcends everything outside of it, that is somehow higher than fleeting emotions that make us do things that aren’t really us.
The history of the search for authenticity has sought to understand this true core of human experience. It has been approached in many ways. Sometimes as a revolt against the outer layer, against standards given to us by society. Other times as taking off a mask. Or rejecting reading a script someone else has written for us, whether god or the bible or society and its rules
Philosopher Jacob Golomb writes that ‘the concept of authenticity is a protest against the blind, mechanical acceptance of an externally imposed code of values.’
The history of authenticity tells us much about the modern world. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, discovering our authentic self meant removing the masks society encourages us to wear, about confessing why we really say or do certain things.
Kierkegaard encouraged us to take passionate leaps of faith, to find subjective truths that were meaningful for us, to take action, to make difficult either/or choices.
Nietzsche knew that the death of god meant that humans were free to create their own values, to pursue the will to power creatively, to break free from the chains others imposed on us. We should love our fates - amor fati - but give style to our characters.
Heidegger thought authenticity meant facing our own deaths, as beings-towards-death, overcoming our own anxiety, and stepping away from the 'They' to create something unique and lasting in the world
And finally, Jean-Paul Sartre argued that we are, above all us, free to choose who we are, what we do, and what meaning we attach to the world and its objects. We have a piercing, lucid, and powerful consciousness that can explore the world and our own characters, and not using that reflective power, not interogating our own traits, beliefs, and actions meant we'd be living in 'bad faith', inauthentically ignoring our true human potential.
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Sources:
W. R. Newell, Heidegger on Freedom and Community: Some Political Implications of His Early Thought
M. Heidegger, Being and Time
Andrew Potter, The Authenticity Hoax
Charles Guignon, On Being Authentic
Maiken Umbach & Mathew Humphrey, Authenticity: The Cultural History of a Political Concept
Jacob Golomb, In Search of Authenticity: Existentialism from Kierkegaard to Camus
Steven Churchill & Jack Reynolds, Jean-Paul Sartre, Key Concepts
Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness
Charles Taylor, The Ethics of Authenticity
Rousseau, Confessions
F. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

[@ThenNow]

Script & sources at: www.thenandnow.co/2023/06/26/how-to-be-yourself/ ► Sign up for the newsletter to get concise digestible summaries: www.thenandnow.co/the-newsletter/ ► Why Support Then & Now? www.patreon.com/user/about?u=3517018

[@JS-dt1tn]

Check out Trilling's Sincerity and Authenticity! Was hoping this video might cover some of that book. You would really enjoy it. For me, authenticity is historically produced and historically responsive. To speak of authenticity's function, it is the ultimate method of complexity reduction, ala Luhmann. Thanks for the video.

[@AnaticulaeIratae14]

Great video. I'm working through Being and Time at the moment, and this is encouraging as I sit with Heidegger's new concepts.

[@sskpsp]

Do you think you can foray into non-Western philosophy on this subject? The self is the central question in Indian philosophy especially Hinduism and Buddhism too touches on a lot of the concepts in this video. Also the same with Chinese philosophy (cf. especially Daoism) as well as indigenous American, Australian, and Africana philosophies I think. I suppose it would be less genealogical at this point and more comparative, but I find all the different takes on the self really interesting. I kept making connections while watching this video.

[@brucetidwell7715]

Essential! Without authenticity, or at least it's closest approximation, one's life and actions are simply a random existence without point or purpose..

[@JS-dt1tn]

@@brucetidwell7715 The self and an authentic self are two different things.

[@Khemadhammo]

Brian: "Don't follow me, you are all individuals" Crowd of followers chanting: "We are all individuals" One person muttering: "I'm not" Other people in crowd: "Shh". --- Life of Brian, Monty Python.

[@bepisthescienceman4202]

Oddly enough the one who said they weren't a individual was the individual

[@ferretappreciator]

@@bepisthescienceman4202 that's the entire point of the comment. In fact, almost the only point made in the comment. You probably couldn't have even tried to get another point from this comment

[@chrps0at0cops]

Well said brother. I'm really enjoying the content and all the work you put into it. Keep vibing

[@AlicedeTocqueville]

@@ferretappreciator l was wondering how to 'splain that to 'bepis the science man'.

[@johnnyoranges]

@@bepisthescienceman4202 You got it !

[@Wingedmagician]

A great philosopher once said “Layers. Onions have layers. People have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.”

[@standowner6979]

You're quoting Shrek!😂

[@QueryBuns]

I pray to Shrek before every meal and before every sleep 🙏

[@peterjanssen5901]

They're also delicious when oven baked.

[@TALKmd]

We are Onions.

[@cypressbartlett9083]

I like parfaits

[@MB-pj8sb]

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." -- F.W. Neitzsche

[@JamesBS]

At the heart of the onion is awareness. All sights, sounds, smells, thoughts, bodily sensations, tastes are objects in awareness. All such objects come and go but awareness is constant. Even when we sleep, awareness is still there, illuminating our dreams. Awareness is not an object, like the aforementioned perceptions are objects, it is the subject, the first person. Awareness is like an open empty space, the canvas for all experience. It doesn’t evolve, it doesn’t need anything, it doesn’t reject anything. It doesn’t have a size or shape. It is not scarred or embellished by the objects of experience. In the absence of sights, sounds, thoughts etc it persists, yet the objects of experience would disappear without it. This is your true self and seeing it clearly is liberation.

[@jonathandavis5658]

To be an individual is to recognize where my ideas come from and what or who influences me. To first question ideas and beliefs then integrate them as bricks to my house of self understanding. Repair and replace if ideas prove false and never stop building.

[@Paranoia128]

So true 🙏❤

[@hinduismwithpremananddasbhagat]

At one point in my 30's I wasn't happy. I started deconstructing my ideas, my beliefs, etc. I found so much I believed I couldn't explain and it didn't feel local. I just knew mom told me to believe this or that, or society told me to believe this or that. I was shocked by how much I would spout, but couldn't explain, or even understand. Once I broke down my ideas, and started pulling back to me ideas I had swallowed into my own words, and could explain, wow, that was the first time I think I became "me".

[@thinker2925]

This is absolutely beautiful. You are becoming one of the most talented, and fast improving, philosophy channels.

[@ThenNow]

Much appreciated :)

[@Saber23]

Not really he’s contradicted himself multiple times

[@CatrinaDaimonLee]

...meh

[@Saber23]

@@CatrinaDaimonLee don’t say meh that’s my thing

[@thexel133]

@@Saber23 Philosophy has contradictions as it is an aspect of life.

[@ozzymandias8265]

Thanks for this, it's really interesting to see a collection of thinkers and their ideas lined up, explained, and synthesized into a clearer point.

[@nasar8480]

That was a great synthesis of a variety of takes on authenticity. It's such a nebulous term that gets thrown around a lot without ever being defined in a manner that doesn't involve 'you know what I'm talking about'. Great work man. Love your channel.

[@fado605]

Excellent video. Authenticity seems to be a paradox in the same way free will is. On the one hand we seem to have free will, on the other is seems obvious that everything is caused. It seems like we have some control in creating who we are, but that is obviously not true. We are created to a large extent by emotions, hardwiring over which we have no control, and the social and natural environment. The whole thing seems like an intractable paradox.

[@MattarKevinCosenza]

I had a discussion about authenticity with my trans support group. Hope this video gives me some new perspectives!

[@gelatindesign]

Your videos just keep getting better and better. I've been thinking a lot about identity and who we can be outside of the prescription of our ancestors, and this has given me more directions to look. Thank you!

[@TeddehSpaghetti]

21:46 I've been putting off my plans to read Being and Time for the past 15 years. Yet somehow I feel I've still managed to be an Authentic Dasein anyhow.

[@Ting3624]

The conclusion is awesome! Create thy self.

[@brucetidwell7715]

Like I suppose any good exploration of philosophy should be, most especially and exploration of "authenticity," this was both a confirmation of my own reality and a challenge to it. Thank you!

[@yulumero3520]

I love this channel. All these subjects are so cool, I want to watch them all at once. Thank you for doing what you're doing!

[@dohaaymoon4096]

My favourite channel uploaded yaaaay

[@LogicGated]

I love that this felt like a journey through so many different philosophical thought.

[@gazrater1820]

Everything dances and then it connects. Excellent and timeless🧭 💡👌. Thank you.

[@Allplussomeminus]

Listening to this writing style scratches an itch I knew I had... Confronting issues so directly with simple words, but strewn with complexity.

[@elkiness]

Very cool. Feels (for me) very authentic! ;-) I love the way you are presenting these videos. I came to the first because of an interest in Spinoza. I was searching, I suppose for a way to understand, and even express in words to myself my own hazy beliefs. So I ordered from my beloved BWB (Better World Books) Nadler's biography of Spinoza, and the Ethics. So far, I've loved the biography on many levels, but hit a wall with the Ethics. I just couldn't grasp it, get ''into'' it. Searching online , after several disappointing videos, I luckily found yours. Kol HaKavod! (Hebrew for ''more power to you!"--but literally, all honor (to you). So I'm on my merry way, watching more and more of your videos. None disappoint, all push me to go on in this autumn of my life (I'm 76 soon), thinking, searching, finding, creating . As a visual artist (working in recent years in melding sculpture, painting and photography by digital means), I often see parallels with your insights in my experiences as an artist and art teacher. Thank you very much!

[@inthemomenttomoment]

Most people don't keep their word. The authentic Self keeps Its Word. Freed Will is greater than the Will to Power due to the fact that Power Seeking is the rooted in words & worlds of powerlessness.

[@thegreatujo]

Thanks to the Patreons for making this possible for us who are not - without AtlasVPN or some other sponsor interrruption. Excelent video.

[@pp-qg7pf]

phenomenal work Lewis, needed this!

[@der_einzige444]

07:27 Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Mask 12:37 Søren Kierkegaard's Inner Truth 16:45 Friedrich Nietzsche's Will to Power 20:40 Martin Heidegger's Limited Life 27:56 Jean-Paul Sartre's Radical Freedom 35:06 The Inner Child or Multiple Selves 38:35 Being (you)

[@CASajjadahmed1225]

Loving your work. You have just changed my life for the better. Love you so much for all the effort, hard work, passion you have to improve our lives for the better and also for being so smart and communicative and kind enough to share your findings/conclusions with us here. Will definitely support you when I'm able... hopefully soon😂. You have become one of my favorites on the KZbin.

[@aniketsanyal5586]

this appears to be a timely video for me, one that I would do well do watch and think over. Let's see! Thank you for making these

[@Sisyphus16]

I am really thankful of your work, once again a lot of thanks, i really like the way you deliver philosophy. ❤️👍

[@wcropp1]

I’m really looking forward to the next video on authenticity and politics. My mind has been in a tug of war between Nietzsche and Marx for years and I’m intrigued to hear your thoughts on authenticity as political praxis. When Sartre tried to do it, it didn’t quite work. Great job, my friend! Keep it up 👍

[@GetUnlabeled]

The ultimate goal is to hold both with total awareness and acceptance without attachment

[@Saber23]

Lol so 2 opposites both with hardly anything practical to offer? No wonder you people constantly waste time

[@billyscenic5610]

Great overview of authenticity. I would love to see a video on the Eastern conception of authenticity. For example the Daoists focused on decultivation as a way to being closer to the Dao.

[@katattack907]

I've recently started watching your videos and I very much enjoy your relevant and historical deep dives into philosophical questions. Keep it up!

[@eternaldelight648]

Finally the Truth has come out again!

[@sebastiangiroud7335]

MAN! Youre videos are so brilliant! I loved the beginning!

[@rainofdespair]

What a great opening!

[@msmelanie.]

Perfect timing again Lewis 👏👏

[@bradrandel1408]

Wonderful thank you so much!🦋🕊

[@JohnWehrle]

Impressive synopsis of so many complex ideas. I do want to say that creating or shaping self can't happen in isolation, or it can but not very well. Cultivating a self happens best in community and through relationships with intimates, acquaintances, and even with ideas. But maybe these are coming in the next video on this subject?

[@ThenNow]

You must have a crystal ball :)

[@raymondklassen7396]

Yes... to authenticity developing in community. This breakdown o authenticity is first-rate.

[@boardcc]

Love your work. This is a comment for your algorithm...

[@fabiodeoliveiraribeiro1602]

Being aware of something specific at a particular moment is only possible by repressing everything that could attract our attention at the same time and was forgotten or avoided by what we call "being focused on something". We are good at doing one thing at a time. When we try to do too many things at once we "lose focus" and make mistakes. To be or not to be is then a matter of keeping or losing focus, being focused on this or that. But we don't live alone, so what we are or cease to be depends on the relationships we build our common focus with someone (family, friends), with something (soccer team, political party, religion) for some emotional reason (love , greed, hatred). Can our ability to be and stay focused with a few or many people be manipulated? Yes. Those who know how to press the right buttons can manipulate one person, a few people, and depending on how the message is spread, tens or hundreds of millions of people. To be an individual in a mass society is paradoxically to be part of the mass in some way. We live together, so each of us has two personalities: one that is our own and unique; another that is the individual reflection of the groups in which we are focused on the same thing with other people. So the big question is not how can I be myself, but how can I not be the individual reflection of the groups in which I am focused on the same thing with other people? The conflict that exists within us comes to exist with other people at the very moment when we want to free ourselves from the socially shared part of our personality. Socrates said that it was better to be in conflict with society and in agreement with yourself than to be in agreement with society and in conflict with yourself. He knew things... but people just can't understand the human depth of what he said and all of that still deserves our focus.

[@andrzejmaranda3699]

This video is VERY IMPORTANT for me!

[@mr12aT]

This is a really great video. Well structured.

[@pilarpighin1255]

Excellent video 🙌 thank you!

[@russellbradmore9983]

Commenting for the algorithm! So ummm yeah great work, Lewis!

[@gilliancargill3182]

This guy is so good.

[@thesevenkingswelove9554]

Thanks for this video. I want to be authentic but have no idea what to do, besides following my gut instincts which made me more impulsive I still think I am not being 100% myself

[@Veil-of-Dust]

Really enjoying these videos, thanks!

[@egorpanfilov]

Brilliant essay, thank you! My time to get into this topic has finally come

[@spectralv709]

Although I realise this channel primarily focuses on continental philosophy...an examination of the self from the perspective of Buddhism would’ve been interesting

[@ThenNow]

Agree - will return to this topic soon

[@spectralv709]

@@ThenNow Can’t wait!

[@mrrose2094]

This is rich content thank you!

[@prismaticsignal5607]

I feel like from Jung's point of view authenticity is the expression of one's archaic archetypal patterns...thus,in some sense, manifestation of the true concept of self.The denial of this internal expression (its repression..or in other words:deep,internalized lie) is the cause of many (if not all) psychological issues,in humans and societies.It's must be the essence of all human beings. Denying the essence = denying truth=denying oneself=going towards the auto annihilation. I think that this leads directly to the concept of Logos and Nietzschean Superhuman,and there a re other examples too.. Authenticity could a concrete manifestation of the presence of that universal drive towards order and complexity...(at least in humans).That drive from which one can deviate but to which ,ultimately, in order to live one must return. In synthesis :authenticity=truth Greetings from Italy!

[@alexanderleuchte5132]

Plato says hi

[@hw2758]

How do you only have 150k subs? This content is so amazing!

[@marcussassan]

Thanks for this

[@David44763]

Thank you so much! Have you, or thought about, publishing this? I could certainly use it in my thesis. Cheers..

[@alaag.h.9905]

This is one of your most amazing videos. Thank you very much for this amazing journey!

[@inthemomenttomoment]

In the Middle of the Onion is space no Center at all, no object 🎁 or subject🥇only🙏 Direct👣Transcendental☯️ 🧘Experience of Being🎺& non-being🧅, no-thing but only Space for de'Light✨

[@apex9841]

Alan Watts explains this very well

[@KymHammond]

Throwing yourself at the ground and missing - Douglas Adams - was always a good recommended way of going about it. ; )

[@MrLuigiFercotti]

The final summary echoes some facets of Stoicism.

[@MrBubudodo]

I am bingewatching all of your videos!!! thanks a lot for you hard work! Until I can financially support you I try to share as many videos as possible :)

[@profsunshine754]

Very interesting! Thank you!

[@susanwilliams4953]

How to be yourself, at the end of the day be true to yourself, even if that truth hurts..

[@spiritsfollow4976]

You quoted Alice Miller!! Immediate plus 100 in my book

[@chrispychicken9614]

When you said to say the first thing that came to mind a LJS fish taco appeared in my mind for no reason at all. I’m screaming lol

[@MagiMystik]

Very well done and very interesting.

[@parchierodriguez4867]

good info thank you

[@danielteegarden8982]

Know Your Limits !

[@fly88l]

Thanks! - amazing video , I really appreciate it. It has helped me a lot in face things I've been avoiding lately

[@ThenNow]

So glad, thank you!

[@eterista3868]

In Philosophy Journal (96) is good article about essentialist authenticity. It gives this video interesting twist - at the end you propose two outlines: exploration and action, as if you synthesize essentialism and existentialism in one coherent whole. But that leaves lot of questions and more problems: is there anything to explore? if there is no centre of oneself, isn't that a waste of time? So that article just focuses on that "exploration" part, on our essence a I think those two outlines are separated for a reason we can better understand what is identity. Synthesizing them makes more problems and lowers explication strenght.

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

My authentic self, full of possibility, is going to stay sat here doing nothing.

[@graemelaubach3106]

Legend

[@raunking5234]

You've gained a subscriber, thanks for the videos!

[@maxwellkay9685]

This was awesome

[@aprole87]

Fantastic video!

[@koffing2073]

B O R I N G

[@BashirArsine]

Great video

[@haanan4059]

seeking authenticity within oneself is impossible. because the moment you start to investigate it, the investigation itself becomes a part of authenticity. we don't hate some music because our personality dictates us, we hate it because we simply were not prepared for that. i may be wrong though. or perhaps i have just wrote some easy obvious ideas, which i am not proud of.

[@basthoune3104]

Great video as always

[@noblebrown6077]

As long as society has existed, the self has been a product of society. Social groups are, by definition, cooperative and interdependent. The idea of a purely self derived 'self' is a little old fashioned

[@TheOrphicLyre]

Excellent video

[@giniwelle]

*Wisdom.*

[@Bojoschannel]

Commenting for the algorithm God, may it bless you with many views as it blesses us with a self now

[@dylanwolf]

Undoubtedly central I think. The mystery of what is the me that experiences qualia through the medium of consciousness is far more interesting than the intent, motivation and origin of what my body performs. What is the relationship berween the me that suffers consciousness and the emotions that seem to drive my actions. All fascinating stuff, especially when it is not clear what reliable tools and measures we have to investigate and explore such issues. and surely clarity on authenticity must precede a study of morality, Language appears to set us off, not from the beginning, but from an already subjective and diminished a priori stance, as well as it being the sole and alas untrustworthy vehicle provided for undertaking our journey of understanding.

[@rudraksh5840]

Interesting. Do you know about the Schopenhauerian stance about music being more primordial/authentic/potent medium of integration in-between consciousness and the Noetic reality as it is (He borrowed the Kantian distinction though not in its original scope)? Music, as per Schopenhauer, maps the fundamental movement of reality as something self annihilating and thus creating its new facet (Heraclitus). He called this primordial character as ''WILL'' which is commensurate with Spinoza's conatus in a way.

[@richardbuckharris189]

"‎Civilization has been a continuous struggle of the individual or of groups of individuals against the State and even against "society," that is, against the majority subdued and hypnotized by the State and State worship." ~ Emma Goldman

[@douglashach1795]

excelent

[@rawcola2283]

Great video.

[@LogoEtika]

Great video!

[@susanneeineigel4889]

✔️

[@alexanderleuchte5132]

Maybe an actual way - negative, by exclusion - to define and measure a possible version of a "true self" is how much of a coherent consciuosness you can be without too much distress caused by inherent cognitive dissonance

[@nelsonphillips]

yeah cool, love that longitudinal view.

[@MattStranberg]

Your channel is amazing. Thank you

[@darleneatkinson3906]

Then & Now, thank you for video. the ? what do you think of authenticity? Nothing really new so I think I could not be authentic even if I wanted to. I never heard of word (AMBIGUOUS) until I watch this video. Useful? I assume I have some use I probably be dead if I did not. Nonsense? I suppose many thing are not worth doing but get done any way. Central? I know I am central to my existences. We are the center of our lives each of us. Again, thanks for sharing this video. Much to think on.

[@susanneeineigel4889]

👍

[@Noms_Chompsky]

Yes! Heidegger always confused my badly wired little brain box using words that I thought I knew for his terms and somewhere in the middle I'd muddle what was what and be a sad little confused person with a badly wired little brain box.

[@edwardbackman744]

6:08 Ive seen this footage on the channel before I absolutely love it and have to know where it comes from

[@ThenNow]

It's a scene from The Astronomer's Dream by Georges Méliès

[@TALKmd]

I do not think that it is our duty to make choices , some times , the failure of making a absolute choice can unleash a transformation the other situations. Thus, sometimes it is the situation rather than the absolute choice.

[@TALKmd]

Onion of onions.

[@chrilin5107]

In my view early gathers, occasional hunters (perhaps 1st in self defense or gathering mussels etc) also had sharing and divided tasks, obvs not as clearly and to the extent it became professions though.

[@gwilymyddraig]

"Always be a first rate version of yourself, and not a 2nd rate version of somebody else." -Judy Garland-

[@6ixthhydro652]

Great overview of many different important ideas !

[@SPDYellow]

Do you have transcripts of your videos? This is a pretty content dense video, and it’d be nice to have something to read and study.

[@ThenNow]

I put them on Patreon :)

[@jorgegamboa949]

Does someone know the music used?