International Journal of Arts and Humanities

ISSN 2360-7998

The Concept of Authenticity in the Existentialist Philosophies of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre: A Panacea for African Development


 Abstract It is not uncommon to behold even elderly Africans still living inauthentic life where they probably, languish and exhaust their existential tendencies and capabilities of making individual impact for themselves and others. That is an underutilization of the possibilities inherent in human nature, hence the focal problem here is the alarming rate of worthless, insignificant and irrational lifestyle Africans exhibit such that little is existentially achieved due to certain socio-religious beliefs confining them to underutilization of their natural capabilities. Thus, questions arise: What factors could be responsible for this African reality? How can the tenets of existentialism salvage this ugly African situation? It is in addressing these issues that this paper defends the view that the tenets of the existentialist philosophies of Sӧren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and Jean Paul Sartre will curb the African existential inauthenticity by arousing a new consciousness towards African development. The paper shall adopt existentialist conceptual analysis to evaluate the discourse as the expectation herein is to expose and proffer solutions to African inauthenticity.

 

Keywords: Existentialist, Philosophy, Inauthenticity, African, Development, Existence, Religion