Kierkegaards Sickness Unto Death as a Via Negationis Towards Being Human

Oscar Bulaong Jr., PhD Department of Philosophy Ateneo de Manila University

The growing consciousness is a danger and a disease. [Friedrich Nietzsche]

why Kierkegaard, why despair?

this is Kierkegaards philosophical
anthropology what does it mean, being human? despair = via negationis
THE SICKNESS UNTO DEATH, A CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPOSITION FOR UPBUILDING AND AWAKENING JULY 30, 1849 BY ANTI-CLIMACUS EDITED BY S. KIERKEGAARD

despair: what could it mean? 1 of 2

not merely the emotion; it is a condition, a
sickness of the spirit originally, Fortvivlelse = tvi is two? The self is a relation that relates itself to itself (146) [...] the inability of the self to arrive at or to be in equilibrium and rest by itself (Hong translation)

despair: what could it mean? 2 of 2

human temporality and spatiality
prevent this arriving at or being in equilibrium explicitly, Despair is the disrelationship in a relation which relates itself to itself (148) where does despair come from? (cf 149) for example, Either Caesar or nothing (Caesar Borgia, an ambitious man) (cf 152)

the universality of this sickness

Just as a physician might say that there very likely is not one single living human being who is completely healthy, so anyone who really knows mankind might say that there is not one single living human being who does not despair a little, who does not secretly harbor an unrest, an inner strife, a disharmony, an anxiety about an unknown something or a something he does not even dare to try to know, an anxiety about some possibility in existence or an anxiety about himself, so that, just as the physician speaks of going around with an illness in the body, he walks around with a sickness, carries around a sickness of the spirit that signals its presence at rare intervals in and through an anxiety he cannot explain (155).

forms of despair, an overview

A. Despair is regarded in such a way in which one reflects upon the factors of the synthesis: 1. Finitude | Infinitude 2. Possibility | Necessity B. Despair is viewed under the aspect of consciousness: (a) Despair that is unconscious that it is despair (b) Despair that is conscious that it is despair 1. In despair at not willing to be oneself, weakness (i) Over the earthly (or something earthly) (ii) About the eternal (or over oneself) 2. Despair of willing despairingly to be oneself, defiance

rst main division: synthesis

despair is regarded in such a way in which
! thesis antithesis = synthesis

one reects upon the factors of the synthesis

despair viewed under the aspects of

Possibility | Necessity
! For the purpose of becoming (and it is the task of the self to freely become itself) possibility and necessity are equally essential (168)

forms of despair, an overview

A. Despair is regarded in such a way in which one reflects upon the factors of the synthesis: 1. Finitude | Infinitude 2. Possibility | Necessity B. Despair is viewed under the aspect of consciousness: (a) Despair that is unconscious that it is despair (b) Despair that is conscious that it is despair 1. In despair at not willing to be oneself, weakness (i) Over the earthly (or something earthly) (ii) About the eternal (or over oneself) 2. Despair of willing despairingly to be oneself, defiance

despair of possibility is due to the lack of necessity

if possibility outruns necessity, the self runs
away from itself [...] becomes an abstract possibility which tries itself out oundering in the possible but does not budge from the spot, nor get to any spot (169) To become is a movement from the spot but to become oneself is a movement at the spot (169) positive and negative forms (cf 170)

despair of necessity is due to the lack of possibility

The loss of possibility signies: either
that everything has become necessary to a man, or that everything has become trivial (173) spiritlessness, being devoid of imagination, dumbness, philistinism either to be paralyzed by fear, or to be drowned in triviality

second main division: consciousness

despair viewed under the aspect of
consciousness
! direct proportion: With every increase in the degree of consciousness, the intensity of the despair increases: the more conscious, the more intense the despair (175) ! minimum: innocence, due to ignorance ! maximum: devil, for the devil is sheer spirit ! can we ascribe a sort of progression, an ascent?

forms of despair, an overview

A. Despair is regarded in such a way in which one reflects upon the factors of the synthesis: 1. Finitude | Infinitude 2. Possibility | Necessity B. Despair is viewed under the aspect of consciousness: (a) Despair that is unconscious that it is despair (b) Despair that is conscious that it is despair 1. In despair at not willing to be oneself, weakness (i) Over the earthly (or something earthly) (ii) About the eternal (or over oneself) 2. Despair of willing despairingly to be oneself, defiance

despair that is unconscious that it is despair

most common in the world; he is
presumably happy: criteria is agreeabledisagreeable sensuous and psychosensuous completely dominate him (176) they have no conception of being spirit [...] in their own house they prefer to live in the cellar (176) unaware but in despair nonetheless

forms of despair, an overview

A. Despair is regarded in such a way in which one reflects upon the factors of the synthesis: 1. Finitude | Infinitude 2. Possibility | Necessity B. Despair is viewed under the aspect of consciousness: (a) Despair that is unconscious that it is despair (b) Despair that is conscious that it is despair 1. In despair at not willing to be oneself, weakness (i) Over the earthly (or something earthly) (ii) About the eternal (or over oneself) 2. Despair of willing despairingly to be oneself, defiance

despair of the earthly (or over something earthly)

despair at not willing to be oneself, weakness
! pure immediacy, the immediate man; he despairs at misfortune, is happy with luck; no reection mediates ! self is identied with the external; the compass is the temporal and worldly ! like a drunk peasant man with new clothes, who does not recognize himself (cf 187)

forms of despair, an overview

A. Despair is regarded in such a way in which one reflects upon the factors of the synthesis: 1. Finitude | Infinitude 2. Possibility | Necessity B. Despair is viewed under the aspect of consciousness: (a) Despair that is unconscious that it is despair (b) Despair that is conscious that it is despair 1. In despair at not willing to be oneself, weakness (i) Over the earthly (or something earthly) (ii) About the eternal (or over oneself) 2. Despair of willing despairingly to be oneself, defiance

despair at the eternal (or over oneself)

despair at not willing to be oneself, weakness
! despair over the earthly? he thinks so, but really despairs over his weakness, he understands that it is weakness to take the earthly so much to heart (195) ! thus he becomes deeply absorbed in his own weakness ! there is greater consciousness: he despairs over himself, the eternal

forms of despair, an overview

A. Despair is regarded in such a way in which one reflects upon the factors of the synthesis: 1. Finitude | Infinitude 2. Possibility | Necessity B. Despair is viewed under the aspect of consciousness: (a) Despair that is unconscious that it is despair (b) Despair that is conscious that it is despair 1. In despair at not willing to be oneself, weakness (i) Over the earthly (or something earthly) (ii) About the eternal (or over oneself) 2. Despair of willing despairingly to be oneself, defiance

deance
despair of willing despairingly to be oneself
! there is the determination to create his self, for he is aware of his innite self (spirit) ! thus he conceptualizes himself as xed, already nished; he wills rst to undertake to refashion the whole thing, in order to get out of it in this way a self such as he wants to have (202); does not yield to God ! makes himself god; this is the devils despair

At every moment you choose yourself. But do you choose your self? Body and soul contain a thousand possibilities out of which you can build many Is. But in only one of them is there a congruence of the elector and the elected. Only onewhich you will never find until you have excluded all those superficial and fleeting possibilities of being and doing with which you toy, out of curiosity or wonder or greed, and which hinder you from casting anchor in the experience of the mystery of life, and the consciousness of the talent entrusted to you which is your I. [Dag Hammerskjld]

It is not depressing; on the contrary it is uplifting, since it views every man in the aspect of the highest demand made upon him, that he be spirit. Nor is it a paradox; on the contrary, it is a fundamental apprehension consistently carried through [...] (155)