Authenticity (Eigentlichkeit)Eigentlichkeit

Heidegger's concept of authenticity is a person's taking up of their own possibility. Often, saying 'everyone does it that way', we dissolve into the crowd and hand our own choice over to others; Heidegger calls this fallenness. Authenticity is stepping out of this dissolution by owning one's own finitude and choice. To be authentic is to take up one's own existence rather than a recipe from outside.