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.