Jezelf zijn.

Being yourself. A quest for personal identity. In modern society people care about their ‘self’ or their ‘personal identity’. But what is personal identity? And what is an authentic self as a modern ideal? Jean-Paul Sartre believes in an atheist existentialism causing man to have ‘radical free choice’ and therefore empowering man to design its own ‘essence’. Charles Taylor, however, disagrees and states radical free choice would just be a simple, effortless consideration. He suggests man needs to use strong evaluations of their desires to choose a ‘way of existence’ and subsequently deciding on its personal identity. Jan Bransen partly agrees, but indicates the necessity of a ‘horizon of meaning’ to help man make its decisions and doing so, obtaining authenticity. This thesis discusses these different philosophers’ theories and services as a starting point for everyone interested in the authenticity of the personal identity as a modern ideal.