Dialogical authenticity: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and the quest for authentic identity

This study is a defense of a notion of authentic selfhood that has recently been developed in the philosophies of Charles Taylor and Calvin Schrag. I trace and articulate the existential basis of this concept in the thought of Soren Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger to explain how the concept of dialogical authenticity borrows from, yet builds upon their foundations. I also wish to show that a proper conception of authentic identity is fundamental to the development of an adequate moral theory.;The main philosophical problem that this study addresses is the tension between the individual and the social dimensions of our existence as human persons. The concept of dialogical authenticity is offered as providing a balanced sense of identity between these two poles. I argue that Kierkegaard provides us with a compelling case for sustaining the individual dimension of selfhood against the social dimension of selfhood and a picture of how the self develops and becomes authentic. I then explain how Heidegger's early philosophy provides a foundational framework from which the concept of authenticity that I argue for makes sense. One of the key insights that Heidegger adds to this project is that we do not create the shared context of life and history, but we can take up the task of authenticity in response to our situation. Conceptualizing the self as something to become rather than something to find involves 'taking a stand', and this kind of authentic resolve provides continuity without recourse to a substantial self.;Despite their insights, a number of problems face the concepts of authenticity that we have inherited from Kierkegaard and Heidegger. These problems are addressed in turn through a comparison of these thinkers and an alternative 'dialogical understanding' of authenticity is offered as a corrective and a contemporary agenda for philosophical theories of selfhood. The argument culminates in a case for how the dialogical concept of authenticity incorporates the social dimension of selfhood, but allows for authenticity by preserving the individual and entailing both self-responsibility and a moral debt to the wider social context that makes the self possible.