Untitled Document

The quest for authenticity is at the center of thinking among existentialists. In this paper, the varying thoughts about what is an authentic person will be discussed from the perspective of the authors studied in the course Phenomenology and Existentialism. It is the student's desire to write on this subject in an effort to move away from inauthenticity and in the direction of the Single One.

Heracleitus of Ephesus writes, "It is hard to fight against impulse; whatever it wishes, it buys at the expense of the soul ... I searched into myself ... Character for man is destiny." This author is a forerunner to the works of Albert Camus, who in The Plague creates Dr. Bernard Rieux and his struggle to be authentic through his work and being. When Dr. Rieux first meets Raymond Ramburt, "a journalist by profession" "His newspaper, one of the leading Paris dailies had commissioned him to make a report on the living conditions prevailing among the Arab population, and especially on the sanitary conditions."

"Rieux replied that these conditions were not good. But, before he said any more, he wanted to know if the journalist would be allowed to tell the truth." "Certainly," Rambert replied. "I mean," Rieux explained, "would you be allowed to publish an unqualified condemnation of the present state of things?

"Unqualified? Well, no, I couldn't go that far. But, surely things aren't quite so bad as that?" "No," Rieux said quietly they weren't so bad as that. He had put the questions solely to find out if Rambert could or couldn't state the facts without paltering with the truth. "I've no use for statements in which something is kept back." he added. "That is why I shall not furnish information in support of yours."

Camus immediately creates an image of inauthenticity in Raymond Rambert and contrasts it with the desire for authenticity of dialogue that the doctor expresses. This is an example of Buber's seeming of being. It appears that the journalist is seeking the truth but further investigation through dialogue with the journalist reveals that it is only an appearance. Camus demands through the character of Dr. Rieux the commitment to living your life as an image of authenticity. Returning to the text of The Plague in the next moment, "The journalist smiled. "You talk the language of Saint-Just." "Without raising his voice Rieux said he knew nothing about that. The language he used was that of a man who was sick and tired of the world he lived in - though he had much liking for his fellow men - and had resolved, for his part, to have no truck with injustice and comprises with the truth."

Rambert is in bad faith because he is lying to himself first and then to Dr. Rieux about what is his true intention. The relationship between the two men is necessary to show the light aspect of Dr. Rieux's character as contrasted to the dark side of Rambert. Later as the plague becomes full blown and the gates of the city are closed, Rambert once again approaches Dr. Rieux. Rambert is separated from his loved one, a woman in another town. Rambert wants Dr. Rieux to write him a letter stating that Rambert was not infected and would not be a risk to anyone if he leaves the town. This letter, along with Rambert's ability to influence and manipulate will allow him to exercise the privilege that no one else is able to use. Everyone is experiencing separation and loss but Rambert will not accept his unhappiness even at the expense of infection to another town where he will go to meet his lover. Rambert looks out only for his own regard and does not consider the welfare of others that may very well be affected by his course of actions.

There is a hidden despair in the lives of the townspeople because so many of them have refused to fight for their happiness or an authentic love. Camus writes, "But naturally enough, this prudence, this habit of feinting with their predicament and refusing to put up a fight, was ill rewarded. For, while averting that revulsion which they found so unbearable, they also deprived themselves of those redeeming moments, frequent enough when all is told, when by conjuring up pictures of a reunion to be, they could forget about the plague. Thus, in the middle course between these heights and depth, they drifted through life rather than lived, the prey of aimless days and sterile memories, like wandering shadows that could have acquired substance only by consenting to root themselves in the solid earth of their distress."

Camus recognizes the terrible price of living inauthentically, without courage to wage the struggle for concrete living. Camus, like Buber writes about the split in each person. Buber addresses this concept when he writes, that the human person is, "the irremovable central place of the struggle between the world's movement away from God and its movement toward God."

In another moment when Dr. Rieux is in dialogue with Tarrou, "Tarrou's gray eyes met the doctor's gage serenely. "What did you think of Paneloux's sermon, Doctor?" The question was asked in a quite ordinary tone, and Rieux answered in the same tone.

"I've seen too much of hospitals to relish any idea of collective punishment. But, as you know, Christians sometimes say that sort of thing without really thinking it. They're better than they seem." Camus stands on the concrete ground of reality with Dr. Rieux, death and suffering are too real to be made into an abstraction of philosophical rhetoric. Dr. Rieux authenticates his own truth because of his experience in facing and working with the suffering and dying It is all too real for Dr. Rieux; he cannot moralize about the reality of the experience.

In the end there is authenticity to the selfish desires of Rambert to be reunited with his love. "Then, again, those were happy who had not suffered a two-fold separation, like some of us who, in the days before the epidemic, had failed to build their love on a solid basis at the outset, and had spent years blindly groping for the pact, so slow and hard to come by, that in the long run binds together ill-sorted lovers. Such people had, like Rieux himself, the rashness of counting on time; and, now they were parted forever. But others - like Rambert, to whom the doctor had said early that morning: "Courage! It's up to you now to prove you're right" - had, without faltering, welcomed back the loved one who they thought was lost to them. And, for some time, anyhow, they would be happy. They know now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for and sometimes attain, it is human love."

Camus, through the narrator of The Plague observes the nature of the human being. There is Dr. Rieux with responsibilities for more than just himself, he cares for the welfare of a town. Rambert, is a man with concerns primarily for himself. Only the human being can go beyond the self and witness the self. This self-reflective awareness is what becomes clear in the end and throughout the novel. The final observation that Camus makes about the human condition is:..."Dr. Rieux resolved to compile this chronicle, so that he should not be one of those who hold their peace but should bear witness in favor of those plague stricken people; so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done them might endure; and to state quite simply what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise."

It is this self-reflective awareness that distinguishes the human being from the animal and that in every moment one must choose to make a decision. Choose to move, as Buber would say, in the direction of God or away from God. To whom does the student turn to learn, if not to the authentic teacher. The teacher that through right action authenticates her life. Dr. Rieux is a teacher not because he sets himself apart as a teacher but because his actions and choices make him an image of authenticity. He authenticates his life with his choices.

In the "Sayings of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav", the authentic path is the path of having to choose evil or good. "Show me one general way to service of God." The Zaddik replied: "It is impossible to tell men what way they should take. For one way to serve God is though the teachings, another through prayer, another through fasting, and still another through eating. Everyone should carefully observe what way his heart draws him to, and then choose this way with all his strength." Truth is not a petrified rock that never changes. Truth is a moving body of knowledge. Each person begins in a state of innocence and many will remain in this garden because of the acceptance of a dogma and a blind faith that does not question the value of its social, religious and personal belief system.

Job begins with blind faith in a God that he believes in with his whole self. This God that Job starts out with is a God that has not caused Job to doubt. Job has not yet experienced the injustices and pains of his life. Job was not yet the rebel.

This relationship that Job is in with God, is God in a well defined space. It is a concept of God that has been labeled and defined by others and unconditionally accepted in blind faith by Job. However, as Job begins to suffer the injustices of his life, he never curses God but rather curses the day he was born. God for Job is everything. Job suffers, "For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes."

Job starts to contend with God. Job begins to to stand up to God and ask the existential question, "God, why did you do this to me?" Job has been faithful to God and still he has had to suffer, why? Why is the question Job wants answered. Out of the chaos of Job's suffering, Job does not wobble in his relationship with God. He is still authentic in his desire to know why, why is his life in such confusion. Job does not turn away from God for the answers but rather turns even more toward God. Unlike Job's three friends. Job Chapter 2 Verse 11: "Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place ... for they made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him ... So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and none spoke a word unto him; for they saw that his grief was very great."

Job's friends believe according to the code of Deuteronomy, the good are rewarded and the wicked are punished. His friends suspect that surely Job must have done something they do not know about to deserve the wrath of God's suffering. Deuteronomy 11, verse 26 states, "Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day ..."

Job is in dialogue with the absurd. He has obeyed God's commandment as he has understood them and yet everything in his life is in flux. Nothing is certain, God is talking with Job and Job is questioning everything that he previously took for granted. Why, Job asks, are we merely born to die. Job believed in a just God and now Job feels betrayed and abandoned by a God that he has served faithfully and dutifully. Job, with full and complete sorrow turns to God though he no longer fully believes in this just God. Job demonstrates complete authenticity when even through his doubt and rebellion against a God that allows such suffering he turns toward God instead of away from God. Job, in all his anguish, does not reject God, but rather demands that God give him an answer. Job still believes that God is a God of Mercy.

Job, Chapter 37, verse 23 and 24, "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out; he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice; he will not afflict. Men do therefore fear him; he respecteth not any that are wise of heart." Job is authentic in his contending with God so he can understand what it is that God wants of him. Job is in a relationship with God that is changing, evolving, moving and unfolding. Job is willing to go through whatever experience God has for him in order to speak with God. Job hears the voice of God and develops a one to one relationship with God. Job starts to really live authentically when he starts to dialogue with God and contend with the conditions of his life. Job takes his suffering very seriously and genuinely wants God to answer his many questions as to why?

Job, previous to his suffering, was not living authentically because he had accepted the religious dogma that his three friends were following. He lived under the codes of Deuteronomy which teaches that good people will not suffer and die young. It is only when Job begins to contend with his own pain that Job begins to authentically seek a relationship with a God that is not transcendent but personal. Job, Chapter 42, verses 1 - 7, "Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."

Job has struggled and still the answer is not clear as to why he had to suffer, but what has become evident is his relationship with a living God. An authentic relationship that exists every day and in each day is the struggle to hear the voice that guides Job on a daily basis. Job has learned to live authentically through his suffering until it ceased. He has become responsible for himself in a loving relationship with a God that never really abandoned him no matter what the appearance. God for Job is a reality. Chapter 42 verses 12-17 of Job states: "So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels; and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she asses. He also had seven sons and three daughters ... After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons even four generations. So Job died being old and full of days."

Blaise Pascal is a great portrayer of the inauthentic person. He says of man, "We may not then look for certainty or stability. Our reason is always deceived by changing shows, nothing can fix the finite between the two infinities, which at once enclose and fly from it." The inauthentic person refuses to decide, as King Lear refuses to accept responsibility for his relationships with his children, always is in great despair. The naked reality is clear but he will not confess any guilt for the creation of his circumstances, and so his torment worsens.

Pascal writes about a question that Lear also asks when he wonders why he should give his children anything when they have betrayed his faith. Pascal says, "When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space which I fill, or even can see engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified, and wonder that I am here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there or now rather than then."

Lear in his basic self is a real man but he makes decisions in bad faith such as having his daughter declare her love for him in front of the whole court. Cordelia, who he loves the most, must present a show of her love for her father. Lear is in bad faith because he wants the world, his world to know of his daughter's love. Lear lives in fear. The fear that his beloved Cordelia will betray him. Lear, like Job, gets to experience the full wrath of his fears upon his life. Lear gives away the things of his kingdom and hopes that this buys the loyalty of his children and subjects. At the moment when he becomes aware of all the betrayals, Buber would say that Lear has now come to the light of self-illumination. Lear, like Job, comes to understand that he must purge himself of everything that was once so important. In his madness there is chaos and out of this chaos comes a compassion.

King Lear will not see Cordelia because he feels shame. King Lear for a moment even condemns his penis for having daughters. This parallels Job cursing not God but the day that he was born. Lear must first illuminate the darkness with Light by confronting his own responsibility for the circumstances from which he flees. According to Tillich we must face our destiny and what we are intended to become. We must be, but it is not automatic.

Buber speaks of the sting of the subconscious. When consciousness is operating , then King Lear to be authentic must turn toward himself and take on the dark night of the soul, as in the night of the actual storm. The recognition on Leer's part that he had not been often enough authentic, makes him a man in dialogue. Lear questions everything and as Buber might say, perhaps Lear has failed fully to walk with God.

In summation, Job, Rieux and Lear all have a dialogue with the absurd as Buber would state. This dialogue is their prayer or conversation with God. Their individual attempts to make a personal relationship with God instead of a transcendent God-head relationship that is not personal. Job has a dialogue with the absurd by engaging himself fully with fists and total interaction with God as to why he suffered so much. No meaning can justify the kind of suffering Job, Rieux or Lear experienced. What is the meaning of the suffering other than to discover that God does not impose a will upon anyone. Each one - Job, Rieux and Lear are free to choose what decision they make.

Camus shows us through The Plague that there is a moment before a decision where one can lie to one's self or make a commitment to one's self. For example, Rieux demonstrates authenticity to himself through his early acknowledgment of the gravity of the plague versus the humanist that denies the need for precautions. Shakespeare, through King Lear asks the question at 84 years old, who am I? In the darkness of Job's suffering, and the death of the plague, and the anguish of Lear there is still life and each man chooses to authenticate their life knowing they have the capacity to face the moment.

The Plague, King Lear and Job show in their respective ways that each person must choose to bring the soul or spiritual dimension into life and so be true to the higher purpose of their life. Camus knows the humanists will die off first because they will not take the necessary precautions. This is a form of inauthenticity by not facing the concrete circumstances of one's life. King Lear must learn to walk away from what he wants the most, his kingdom and the public love of his daughter Cordelia. When Lear is willing to let it all go, he turns away from his great self-deception and toward a more authentic expression of himself, a man in good faith. Even though the enlightened Lear still continues to suffer with the death of Cordelia, he is totally real in his suffering though perhaps not understanding its meaning.

The three characters (Lear, Job and Rieux) do not give us the answers as to what is authentic or inauthentic but point the way as Buber indicates to the window for the student to look out and see the choices of being true to one's self or betraying oneself. To know what this truth is , the still small voice of God must be heard and acted upon. When you listen to this holy presence and take the action your life is authenticated , because your courage has taken you through the doubt into an authentic personal relationship with the living present God. If God is not present in your life, it is because you have turned away, not God. Authenticity is achieved by dialogue with God, acceptance of what is heard within and resisting the desire to fulfill our cravings. Job, King Lear, and Dr. Rieux are images of the process involved in becoming authentic and authenticating one's life through right choice.