Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy revolves across the thought of existentialism or, as others would say, existential philosophy the place people discover that means of their life by means of a leap of religion.
Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy or model of existentialism is at the start a response to Hegel’s speculative philosophy. As is well-known, in Hegel’s system, what issues is the conclusion of the Absolute upon which the person is merely subsumed in your entire means of the event of Motive. In different phrases, as we will see in Hegel’s seminal work The Phenomenology of Spirit, within the growth of Motive, every thing that occurs (for instance, world wars) is only a essential a part of historical past and people don’t play an energetic function in it. In Kierkegaard’s interpretation, the person’s existence is being ignored and diminished to passivity on this course of. With this, as Kierkegaard sees it, the person is unfree. Her life turns into meaningless.
Versus Hegel, what issues to Kierkegaard is concrete existence. You will need to observe that the time period existence for Kierkegaard is correct solely to human beings. In truth, in existentialism, different entities, resembling vegetation and animals, don’t exist; they solely “reside”. This explains why for Kierkegaard, to exist means to try, to think about options, to decide on, to resolve, and most of all, to commit. As we will see, nearly all of this, as Kierkegaard could have argued, isn’t captured in Hegel’s system. That is exactly the explanation why Kierkegaard rejected the system-building method of Hegel and argued as an alternative that the search for fact entails private alternative, grounded in non secular religion.
Kierkegaard additionally shared the conviction of the most important philosophers reacting in opposition to Kant, Hegel, and the remainder of the German Idealist (so well-known throughout this time) that the 19th century European tradition was terribly dysfunctional.
Moreover, Kierkegaard additionally shared the argument that the person will come to a correct understanding of human existence and society solely when she radically breaks from the prevailing cultural attitudes.
However how can the person really exist? Or in what means can she attain genuine or significant existence?
In accordance with Kierkegaard, genuine existence is attained when the person realizes herself by means of the alternative between options and the following self-commitment.
However how is self-realization attainable?
In accordance with Kierkegaard, self-realization could be attained by means of the three phases of life, specifically, aesthetic stage, moral stage, and non secular stage. These three phases of life, which Kierkegaard calls “phases on life’s means”, contain a course of whereby the true self or genuine existence is actualized within the type of individuality.
The Three Levels of Life in accordance with Kierkegaard
Aesthetic Stage
In accordance with Kierkegaard, the aesthetic stage is dominated by ardour; it’s certainly the realm of sensory expertise and pleasure. As we will see, the aesthetic life for Kierkegaard is characterised by pleasure, and if one desires to reside the aesthetic life to the fullest, she should maximize this pleasure.
The essential purpose of the aesthetic stage, subsequently, is to fulfill one’s needs. Hedonism is an ideal instance of this stage. And since the individual on this stage is pushed by needs solely, in accordance with Kierkegaard’s philosophy, she isn’t really free. Even when she will get what she desires, resembling meals, drink, intercourse, and the like, nonetheless her life stays empty as her needs can by no means be totally glad. She wants extra: extra meals, extra drinks, extra intercourse.
Kierkegaard acknowledges the significance of the aesthetic life. As a human flesh, we have to fulfill our physiological wants. Nonetheless, as a result of this stage lacks dedication to beliefs, the aesthetic life will essentially lead to boredom, boredom not solely with the exercise however with self.
Boredom, in accordance with Kierkegaard, is sort of a poison that flows by means of the veins of every particular person, whether or not poor or wealthy nobody escapes this “psychic-emotional state”. Boredom, subsequently, performs an vital function in Kierkegaard’s philosophy. It is because by means of boredom, the person realizes that her needs can by no means be totally glad and, thus, she should change.
Now, in accordance with Kierkegaard, when the person experiences this example, she is confronted with a alternative, that’s, both she stays within the pursuit of sensual pleasures or to hunt increased types of pleasuresꟷ thus Kierkegaard’s work well-known work Both/Or.
Moral Stage
The moral stage is the results of the person’s choice to commit herself to the ethical beliefs of the society. Right here, in contrast to the aesthetic stage, the person considers the results her actions may have on others and provides extra emphasis on selling social justice and equality.
For Kierkegaard, the first purpose of this stage is to reside in accordance with moral requirements, that’s, to develop into an moral individual. Thus, the person who lives on this stage takes duty for herself (together with her selections and actions) and seeks to develop into what she must be. Because of this, the person seeks to satisfy her duties and duties associated to her work, to her fellowmen, and the society as an entire. Thus, within the moral stage, the self is now not the middle of every thing because it was within the aesthetic stage. It’s also within the moral stage that the concept of “sacrifice” is launched.
However there’s a drawback right here.
Kierkegaard thought that the moral particular person will ultimately mirror and understand that she doesn’t at all times do what she must do―the truth is, nobody does. In accordance with Kierkegaard, this ultimately results in the expertise of guilt and despair.
In Kierkegaard’s philosophy, the expertise of guilt and despair exhibits that the person wants additional change, and that is essential if one desires to realize true achievement or a significant existence. As we will see, the person can’t discover actual satisfaction within the ethics stage. In different phrases, one can’t discover a significant existence within the moral stage.
In response to this, in accordance with Kierkegaard, the person can both 1) merely attempt more durable to do the precise factor, that’s, to be an moral individual, or 2) transfer to the third and last stage, by means of a leap of religion.
Spiritual Stage
In accordance with Kierkegaard, as already talked about above, we can’t discover true achievement within the moral stage. Irrespective of how arduous we attempt to be righteous, we at all times find yourself doing the improper factor. Thus, once more, we inevitably expertise guilt and despair.
We all know that the person ultimately turns into conscious that she certainly can’t at all times do the precise factor, however what’s vital within the moral stage is that she accepts the truth that not doing the precise factor is a part of the character of man―that we at all times commit errors, that we at all times commit sin.
Now, for Kierkegaard, it is just faith that may supply the potential for a real achievement, of a significant or genuine existence. It is because, for Kierkegaard, it is just God’s forgiveness that may eradicate guilt and despair.
It should be famous, nonetheless, that the non secular stage isn’t merely another of the moral. In truth, the moral and non secular phases could even be incompatible, for instance, as to the calls for of morality. The well-known God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac is a typical instance.
Issued with out obvious justification or motive, this command goes in opposition to each the pure emotional ties of parental love and the essential ethical precept of any conceivable human society. In its absoluteness and unconditionality, God’s instructions mark the strict separation of the non secular and the moral spheres. As we will see, Abraham has religion and acts to obey God’s will, however ultimately he isn’t required to sacrifice his son. For Kierkegaard then, we should imagine despite the fact that religion violates human rationality, nature, and morality. It is because for Kierkegaard, a religion which conforms to ethical instinct doesn’t have any significance. Thus, it’s the absurdity of faith that proves its distinctive worth.
However why ought to people imagine in what they need to discover as irrational, unnatural and immoral?
That is precisely what Kierkegaard calls a “leap of religion”, which occurs solely when a alternative in favor of religion has been made. Kierkegaard, nonetheless, emphasised that this alternative or act of selecting should be primarily based on SELF-CONSCIOUS and AUTHENTIC DECISION, slightly than the impact of conformism.
That is what Kierkegaard calls inwardness or fact as subjectivity: when one turns into extra of a person by means of acutely aware selections and a full self-awareness earlier than God.
Lastly, the non secular stage is the place the person finds true achievement and attains an genuine or significant existence, and, in Kierkegaard’s philosophy, that is made attainable by means of a leap of religion.
