Authentic Orange

Submitted By: Hadi Rahal-Arabi

Authenticity has never been universally defined; the definition varies between contemporary philosophers. It is generally agreed upon that to be authentic, one must be representative of their true self (Lecture 5/26/15). However, what it means to represent the true self is up to the interpretation of an individual philosopher. This lack of clarity is not unique: Philosophy has no “correct” answers; several valid but contradictory conclusions exist within the study (Lecture, 4/2/15). For this reason, it is important to assert than any philosophical statement is tied to the philosopher that makes it. Given my interpretation of authenticity, I believe that the only trait required to be authentically Orange is to have a desire to learn.

Regardless of Philosophical opinions, authenticity is a representation of self. However, “Orange”, when used in the context of Oregon State University, refers to a subset of qualities that are indicative of being a student, a member of a group (Lecture, 5/26/15). While community ideals and authenticity are not mutually exclusive traits, group ideals have little bearing on an individual’s authenticity. This can be seen through Sartre’s famous waiter example. In the thought experiment, a waiter acts unauthentically because he is driven to act as a waiter in his daily life (Lecture, 5/26/15). The critical distinction was that the professions is not inherently unauthentic, but the waiter is, due to his prioritization of success over authenticity. If Sartre’s example is extended beyond the waiter and applied to the student body of OSU, it is easy to see that a student who embodies certain qualities exclusively for his student life cannot do so authentically. Sartre has a proposed definition of the self: ”[…]  man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world-and defines himself afterward” (Sartre, Existentialism is Humanism). If we accept this definition, and assume the self is inherent, then acting against the self to adhere to community values e.g. OSU’s, is acting against the self, and is thus unauthentic.

The common counterargument to this definition of authenticity is that the scope is exceptionally narrow. After all, if the definition is so strict, how could anybody ever be authentic? The method of maintaining authenticity while submitting yourself to community values and ideals is simple: community ideals must always be general. In the case of Oregon State University, the student body all maintain a single common ground: they are attending the university to learn. If we begin to apply restrictions to this definition, e.g. authentically orange students must care about their study, we immediately begin to alienate key demographics of the university. This alienation would counteract any positive benefits of the “authentically orange” label, because if it is accepted that to be authentically orange is to act within the bounds of community ideals, no part of the community can be arbitrarily ignored.

The bounds of authenticity within Oregon State must be low, otherwise the label will apply social pressures on the student body to act in ways that are unauthentic to the self. As a student, the limits of being “Authentically Orange” only require you to be a member of the community, and to be authentic to yourself.

Submitted By:

Scott Lantz

Is it possible to truly live authentic to yourself? To be a functional citizen of society I believe that it is impossible to truly be authentic. This is because you cannot always do what you please, either because it is against the law or it is a social taboo, but I will save that for a different day. That being said, the question posted was what I thought it meant to authentically “Be Orange.” To do this to the best of ones ability, one must take in many different points of view. I believe that it is absurd to think that one can label 30,000 different individual people into the same category and tell them, “If you do not believe in these specific guidelines, you are not authentically ‘being orange’ and therefore you do not fit in.” To be authentic, or to be authentically “orange” could mean something to me, which would not be seen as authentic to someone else. Someone who has lived in Oregon their whole life and grew up around Oregon State University, would believe in a different meaning in how they would define authentically “Being Orange” than an international student who came to Oregon State solely for the education and knew nothing about the past, traditions, or social norms of the university. Would someone in this position, who does not know anything about Oregon State, be authentically orange?

This is why I believe that nobody can define what being authentically orange means except for what it means to yourself. I would define authenticity as a journey on becoming who you are. This means that if you live your whole life being unauthentic to yourself, you will never truly become oneself and Sartre would say that you are living in Bad Faith, by denying ones transcendence and denying facticity (Lecture 6/2/2015). An obstacle that makes it difficult to become an individual in not only my community but also the world is giving into social norms. This is something that happens very often and in most cases, nothing can be done about it. Say I want to be authentic to myself and not wear any clothes to class one day; because of the social norm (and the law) I will get punished for doing something that I feel is authentic to myself. This is one example of how social norms are an obstacle for one to become an individual. As humans, we are drawn into being with others and being like others, this is why we have social norms, so we fit in. This is what Nietzsche would call ‘The Heard’ (Lecture 4/28). If someone steps out of the heard, or steps out of the norm they would be seen as someone who has gone mad. Nietzsche said in The Gay Science, “To be oneself, to assess oneself according to one’s own weights and measures – that was contrary to the taste of time. The inclination to do so would be perceived as madness for being alone was bound up with every misery and every fear (Nietzsche, The Gay Science, pg. 131).” What he is saying here is that if you do something that people in your time are not used to they will see that as strange or that you are ‘mad’ when, in truth, you just want to be authentic to yourself and leave the heard.

What does it mean to be authentically “Be orange?” To me, it means to work hard. Do the job you are doing and do it right and the best you can do it. You might not always get recognized for your work but you’ll know that it’s the best you can do. Oregon State was founded upon these ideals when it was established as a land grant school back in 1868 for blue-collar families that wanted their children to have a chance to get some higher education. We are all condemned to be free says Sartre (Lecture 5/25/2015). It is what we do with our freedom that makes us the individuals that we are and this is what makes us authentic orange. This is what being authentic is, choosing to use our freedom in the ways that we want them or just giving into other people and living an unauthentic life. Just as Gregor lost his authenticity when he transformed in the metamorphosis into an insect (Lecture 6/4/2015), Beavers could lose their authenticity by not choosing to use their freedom the way they want to and giving into social norms and the heard.

Submitted By Sean Prior

Be yourself. Words I have heard many times from my mother growing up. As a kid you don’t think much more into that thought. As a junior in college I can think a little deeper now. It brings up a question, who is myself? What would Sean Prior do? How does one be authentic? When in the situation, do I do what my mom said I should do, or do I make my own judgement call and find out for myself. There is a moment of ambiguity. Do I act upon how I was told to handle a situation and let that define me? I think I’m going to experiment and decide what I would do after I’ve a trial run. I think that to be an authentic OSU student is to guide your choices and invest your time based on your wants with input from many un-invested guides. Here are my four tips how to live authentically

Human Reality is Ontologically Ambiguous (PP 4-9-15, 17/22).  Based on Sartre’s reading we have two thoughts. One is Being-in-itself, which is the facticity of the situation. And Being –for-itself is the transcendence of the situation. The facticity is why you are in college and how you got here. Tip #1 Do what you enjoy doing, but in some sense you must conform to the school standards. I’ll use myself as an example. I’m here because neither of my parents went to college so I grew up with the expectation of going to college because based on their life experience it was needed to make more money. Now who was I to say no to this as a naïve high schooler?  Once I got here I was free from them. Now everything was my choice, what to study, when to go to bed, what to do all night. My freedom and consciousness said to have fun and ignore responsibility. But the facticity of the situation was that I had committed to paying lots of money and going to class. You can’t stay in school and be free if you aren’t passing classes. Sartre compares us to Ontological Centaurs (pp 4-9-15 19/22.) Being in situation, to be successful you must manage your Transcendence with your Facticity and balance them so that you stay happy but also keep afloat among school expectations.

Tip #2 Find friends that let you be you, and sometimes doing something you want to do, alone, is more satisfying than pretending to like something. “Do what you must, come what may.” (The Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir 1947.)  I like this because it is impossible to find someone who is going to do life exactly like you. If you want to sleep all day spend the wee hours of the morning at the library and drink the weekend away. Go for it. You are sure to meet people along the way. Compartmentalize your friend groups and know who to call to do what.

Tip #3 Be the Hero of your own Story and achieve your goals. We recall the myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. Sisyphus is condemned to rolling a rock up the mountain only to have it roll back down. But see him as the Absurd Hero. He reaches his goal every day. Can you say that about yourself? It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you do it.

Tip #4 Do everything with an intention of bringing happiness. No one likes to be sad, angry, or upset. I can honestly say I don’t. Think about Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence (pp 6-2-15 12/17.) If you knew you had to live your life out again numerous times without change how would you live it, knowing that you are writing the script as you read this? Would you change your ways and be more optimistic and worry less. I think so. In the You tube series 8-bit titled Time is a Flat Circle? (Nietzsche + Mega Man) Nietzsche’s schemed up a person who is strong enough to deal with the hardships and remain with a positive outlook on life. One who can do this is called an Ubermensch. That is what you must aspire to.

My final words are use these tips or not, I don’t care, it really doesn’t affect me, but please be yourself.