Filosofia e letteratura

Narrare la vita con Claude Romano

Abstract

The terms “destiny” and “fate” are often used interchangeably in common par- lance. In the course of history, in its relation to morality and religion, fate has sometimes prevailed over destiny as an irrational law or necessity capable of de- termining the course of events according to an inscrutable order. Scheler—who- se philosophy inspired this contribution on authenticity as a fundamental qua- lity of one’s identity—excludes all possible forms of fatalism. In this regard, he phenomenologically distinguishes “destiny” from “individual destination” or “vocation” (individuelle Bestimmung). On his view, it is only by identifying the first with the second, or rather by identifying a set of personal data, traditions, characters, and environments with the specific task that each of us has been cal- led on to carry out in the moral cosmos, that fatalism can arise—where fatalism is linked to the necessity of the world and the absolute impossibility of carving out spheres of human freedom within it. This paper deals precisely with the link between the phenomenon of authenticity and the concept of a person’s vocation.