In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

452 FRAMES
ducts the self-immunization of his position: "A skeptic can no more be
refuted than the Being of truth can be 'proved.' And if any skeptic of the
kind who denies the truth factically is, he does not even need to be
refuted. Insofar as he is and has understood himself in this Being, he has
obliterated Dasein in the desperation of suicide; and in doing so, he has
also obliterated truth." 57 The association between renouncing a position
of transcendence and choosing suicide is becoming frequent in 1926. [see
Immanence = Transcendence (Death)] What is unique-and sometimes
hard to accept-in Heidegger's philosophical position is the (potentially
paradoxical) simultaneity between the absence of a religiously grounded
transcendence and a cognitive certainty whose gesture invariably reminds
us of religiously grounded world views.
Opting for Authenticity
One of the more complex problems in Heidegger's revision of the subject-object
paradigm derives from a double determination of being-inthe-truth
as a condition of Dasein. On the one hand, it means that truth
is but a possibility of Dasein. On the other hand, however, it implies that
Dasein will not always willingly seize this potential. Consequently, while
Heidegger does not provide any answer to the question of how Dasein
could be ultimately persuaded or obliged to choose its possibility of
existential plenitude, 58 he paints a particularly colorful philosophical
picture of the contrast between Dasein's "authenticity" (Eigentlichkeit)
and its "inauthenticity." [see Authenticity vs. Artificiality]. More than
any other motif in Sein und Zeit, it is this contrast which attracts and
brings together codes, values, and metaphors from a range of contemporary
discourses.59 The most essential value-associations in this context
are those between "authenticity" and (Heidegger's concept for) individuality
(jemeinigkeit), and between "inauthenticity" and (a number of
negative concepts related to) the public sphere. [see Individuality vs.
Collectivity]
And because Dasein is in each case essentially its own possibility, it can,
in its very Being, "choose" itself and win itself; it can also lose itself
and never win itself; or it can only "seem" to do so. But only insofar
as it is essentially something which can be authentic-that is, something