Kierkegaard Philosophy in 9 Minutes - The Father of Existentialism

was a danish philosopher theologian poet social critic and religious author regarded by some philosophers as the father of existentialism born in 1813 in copenhagen he lived at the end of the enlightenment this air ushered in enormous advances in technology and human understanding the thinking of that time was that life's biggest problems including what a human's true self is could be solved through objective means such as through the application of logic and science kierkegaard not only disagreed with this idea but for that matter with much of what the accepted status quo in the literature philosophy and religion of his day was much of his philosophy centered around the concept of how one lives as a single individual as he wrote in concluding unscientific postscript to philosophical fragments subjectivity is truth and truth is subjectivity and as do thinker he of course agreed that science and objective facts are important but prominent systematic philosophers of his time such as hegel weren't really acknowledging that there exists deeper subjective truths or truths that separate ourselves from other individuals out there what exactly does he mean by subjective truth well take for example the idea of whether we should become a professional musician as a career objective facts may tell us things like our average salary or the approximate amount of hours we need to practice each day but to really understand what it means to be a musician full-time means we have to experience it for ourselves we have to pick up a guitar and try to get a music gig to understand if we're going to be doing this for a living full-time this unique focus on the individual's lived experience led him by some scholars to be considered the father of existentialism existentialism is the philosophy that the world has no intrinsic meaning and that individuals alone are responsible for their actions decisions and purpose for kierkegaard this responsibility was of utmost importance because our eternal salvation hanged in the balance of how we act and the life we ultimately choose to live a profound religious man keukagar believed god would ultimately judge who we've become as a single individual through the course of our actions to understand kierkegaard's work a little better is to understand the man behind the writing soren's father michael was a wealthy but deeply melancholy man who took his guilt and stern religious beliefs out on sauron and his seven children soren lamented that he had been born old and never had a fun carefree childhood despite his business success michael kierkegaard believed he was cursed and his children would all died for the age attained by jesus age 33. it turned out that young sauron would indeed be surrounded by death early in life as all but one of his siblings would not live to see that age in 1840 soren became engaged to regina olsen despite writing how deeply in love he was with her he mysteriously broke off the engagement and whether it was a sexual indiscretion a religious experience calling him to be celibate or just not wanting to support a wife and child financially scholars can only speculate as to why he really did it however it was a serious turning point in his life as it said of course for him to to fully dedicate himself to writing and philosophy not only that it further established him as this type of outside figure since he would never marry during his life soren wrote a prolific amount his most well-known works being either or fear and trembling and the sickness unto death he creatively used a method of indirect communication writing under various pseudonyms to convey this sense of personal responsibility to the reader to make up his mind and sever ties with a perceived expert or all-wise authority figure sometimes referred to as the poet philosopher his writings were filled with passion irony and parables instead of the dry analytical discourse of other intellectuals of his time for example in his work either or he burst forth if you marry you will regret it if you do not marry you will also regret it if you marry or if you do not marry you'll regret both whether you marry or you do not marry you will regret both laugh at the world's follies you will regret it weep over them you will also regret it if you laugh at the world's follies or if you weep over them you'll regret both whether you laugh at the rolls follies or you weep over them you will regret both when one reflects inward and begins examining their life it leads to some unsettling questions and topics that kierkegaard wasn't afraid to explore two examples found in his works include death and angst or despair death is an objective fact that everyone is aware of but kierkegaard believed that no one truly understood death and thought about it which was needed to live a life of passion the truth is we could be struck down at any moment our life ended in a flash however the herd goes along not giving a second thought to this living in death denial angst for kierkegaard was unfocused fear or specifically a dizziness of freedom when one truly looks inward and sees how much freedom and possibilities one has it's anxiety producing he asks us to imagine a man standing on top of a cliff looking down at the possibilities he could do and become in his life the longer he stands the more dread he feels as he wrote in the concept of anxiety anxiety may be compared with dizziness he whose eye happens to look down into the dawning abyss becomes dizzy but what is the reason for this it is just as much in his own eye as in the abyss for suppose he has not looked down hence anxiety is dizziness of freedom which emerges when the spirit wants to posit the synthesis and freedom looks down into its own possibility laying hold of finiteness to support itself despite its negative feeling angst is important as it leads us to personal responsibility and awareness of our choices in life independent from what others want us to believe it brings us from a state of unself-conscious immediacy to self-conscious reflection so what's the specific process for becoming a single individual what's the end goal for kierkegaard scholars believe we can categorize his writing into three levels of individual existence one must pass through these are the aesthetic the ethical and the religious stage one is the aesthetic life a life defined simply by experiencing pleasures like sensuous desires and intellectual enjoyment a good way to combat life's boredom the individual soon realizes he or she needs more substance and purpose in life that's where stage two the ethical life comes in to function as a mature society we all have to establish good and bad roles to be followed and judged by we understand that we're an integrated part of society and that there is a purpose greater than oneself out there however you can still enjoy aesthetic pleasures in life it's just that ethical principles now supersede the aesthetic for instance the aesthetic excitement and passion of a new marriage can quickly fade however by acting morally and taking care of one's spouse you can learn for yourself that there are things more meaningful than just service level pleasures and excitement however to truly live life as a single individual one must take another step and adopt number three the religious life for kierkegaard living the religious life was something almost no one did and was considered uh by him to be the highest plan of existence see truly finding god for him doesn't happen by mindlessly following ethical rules social guidelines and regurgitating church dogma true religion comes when we have a personal commitment in relationship to the christian god alone and are willing to supersede ethical principles for god in fear and trembling kierkegaard writing under pseudonym gives abraham as an example of someone who reached the religious life rather than follow normative ethical rules and spare a son as murder is wrong abraham looks inward and understands god requires deeper inner commitment more than just following rules being rational of course kierkegaard understood that this isn't a simple task christian teachings are paradoxical after all asserting that god as christ is both 100 human and 100 god confronted with such a paradox one can either logically reject the idea and take offense or live by faith and believe by virtue of the absurd the absurd here concept that appears throughout kierkegaard's work is seen to be an enhancement of faith something that we all must embrace we suspend our ethical rational beliefs for religious ones like abraham did we embrace the teleological suspension of the ethical and take the leap of faith here we become what he called a knight of faith someone who has transcended ethical and rational objectivity for subjectivity and placed complete faith in himself and god acting freely from the world so that was just a very brief introduction to kierkegaard as there's far more to him and his work and i encourage you to read some of his writings for yourself if any of this seemed interesting now today most philosophers and those in academia would disagree with kierkegaard's religious conclusions but history has greatly benefited from him if you're someone struggling with feelings of despair anxiety meaning in life and wrestling with your own mortality and inevitable death kierkegaard if you were here might say good job man these feelings although uncomfortable indicate that you're on the right path toward understanding yourself and becoming your unique self you've started the essential journey inward and are separating yourself from the masses and herd mentality so don't feel too bad now if you like this video uh please make sure to subscribe for more using the link in the description below and click the notification bell to receive updates when new videos come out and give this video a like if you liked it uh as that helps it get seen in the 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Channel: Thinking Deeply with Ben

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Id: E5Mx3i-0IM0

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021