The Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard

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Introduction

The Sickness unto death is one of the remarkable works of the nineteenth century by Kierkegaard where he significantly explored the notion of ‘despair’. He has alerted the readers in various ways in which they could possibly live in a state of bleak abandonment and widely discussed the solution to eradicate this despair. The philosophical work offers great ideas about the nature of self and its connection to despair.

Description

He is of the view that an individual is “in despair” if he fails to align himself with God. When he aligns himself with God, he will lose his self. Humanity, according to the Kierkegaard, is as the tension between ‘possible and the necessary' and ‘finite and infinite' ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"m65GrHXw","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hampson)","plainCitation":"(Hampson)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":38,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/sj6ANS8g/items/7U82CK4N"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/sj6ANS8g/items/7U82CK4N"],"itemData":{"id":38,"type":"book","title":"The Sickness Unto Death","publisher":"Oxford University Press","source":"www.oxfordscholarship.com","abstract":"This chapter offers a reading of Søren Kierkegaard's philosophical work The Sickness unto Death to illuminate his ideas about the nature of the self in contrast to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's understanding of the human being. More specifically, it examines Kierkegaard's argument that the self can only come to itself as it is open to transcendence. It compares the views of Hegel and Kierkegaard with the tradition of Martin Luther, with particular emphasis on the nature of the self in relation to God. It also expounds the phrase ‘sickness unto death’ and its connection to despair, along with Kierkegaard's comparison of Christianity with Socrates's definition of sin and his Lutheran statement that sin is the opposite of faith rather than virtue.","URL":"http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199673230.001.0001/acprof-9780199673230-chapter-7","ISBN":"978-0-19-180662-9","language":"en_US","author":[{"family":"Hampson","given":"Daphne"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013",4,25]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",4,27]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hampson). While one can identify it with the act of dialectical balancing between these contradictory features. Moreover, human beings are inherently self-conscious and reflective. Therefore, if one wants to become a true self, he needs to be conscious of the self and he must be beached in love. The basis of this self is the power that has created and sustained it. When someone is a denial of the self or the power, then he is despair. Kierkegaard has pronounced kinds of despair according to Kierkegaard: wanting in despair to be oneself, not wanting to be oneself, and being unconscious in despair of having a self. Because of ignorance, this self has been created.

The only solution that Kierkegaard is discussed is that human being has to develop ties with the ‘power that has established it’ and to adopt the Christian faith ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ATgd66nb","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hampson)","plainCitation":"(Hampson)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":38,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/sj6ANS8g/items/7U82CK4N"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/sj6ANS8g/items/7U82CK4N"],"itemData":{"id":38,"type":"book","title":"The Sickness Unto Death","publisher":"Oxford University Press","source":"www.oxfordscholarship.com","abstract":"This chapter offers a reading of Søren Kierkegaard's philosophical work The Sickness unto Death to illuminate his ideas about the nature of the self in contrast to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's understanding of the human being. More specifically, it examines Kierkegaard's argument that the self can only come to itself as it is open to transcendence. It compares the views of Hegel and Kierkegaard with the tradition of Martin Luther, with particular emphasis on the nature of the self in relation to God. It also expounds the phrase ‘sickness unto death’ and its connection to despair, along with Kierkegaard's comparison of Christianity with Socrates's definition of sin and his Lutheran statement that sin is the opposite of faith rather than virtue.","URL":"http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199673230.001.0001/acprof-9780199673230-chapter-7","ISBN":"978-0-19-180662-9","language":"en_US","author":[{"family":"Hampson","given":"Daphne"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013",4,25]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",4,27]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hampson). Over facts of the world, people may appear to despair, but despair is continuously an internal problem and people himself are responsible for creating that problem. Although, this despair is a universal phenomenon and people may not realize it when they in a state of despair. But people would possibly be despair with an excessive concern, imagination about their material circumstances, sense of lack of options, and sense of vast possibilities. There are, however, the hierarchy of kinds of despair starting from weak desires.

The inability to get free oneself is also the reason for the sickness unto death. Often, the sickness unto death is viewed as a sickness in which death is ended, and the end is the death. If one view that death is the end is to despair, as death is a way into life. According to Christian worldview of the Kierkegaard, death equals redemption, and to be saved by God. To be prevented from redeemed, one needs to be despair. A self cannot be free in a state of despair. It is concerned with the self-awareness, but not unmistakably. Self-awareness and despair are integrated with each other, and constantly compelling into an intensified kind of despair.

Kierkegaard philosophy has been viewed as a stimulus to acquire deeper faith and reflective role religion in the contemporary world. He wants to show that scientific power as a tool to comprehend and control the world does not unavoidably eradicate the need for religion. But no doubt, science helps us to understand the universal natural phenomena and fails to explain that which religious views and morals are correct.

Conclusion

It has been seen in Kierkegaard's philosophy that the self is not itself, as it was created by God. While when one becomes unwilling to be oneself, the despair becomes sin. Both the sin and despaired have various kinds and degrees of intensity that are concerned with self-awareness. Thorough increasing self-consciousness, one can free himself. This is the absolute way through which one can realize that everything is possible for God.

Works Cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Hampson, Daphne. The Sickness Unto Death. Oxford University Press, 2013. www.oxfordscholarship.com, http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199673230.001.0001/acprof-9780199673230-chapter-7.