What is the sickness unto death according to Kierkegaard?

What is the sickness unto death according to Kierkegaard?

The true “Sickness unto Death”, which does not describe physical but spiritual death, which stems from not embracing one’s self, is something to fear according to Anti-Climacus. This sickness unto death is what Kierkegaard calls despair.

What is sin to Kierkegaard?

Sin is: before God, or with the conception of God, in despair not to will to be oneself, or in despair to will to be oneself. Thus, sin is intensified weakness or intensified defiance: sin is the intensification of despair.

How do I overcome despair Kierkegaard?

The point of The Sickness Unto Death is to demonstrate that “faith” is the way to overcome despair. Just what Kierkegaard means by despair–and by faith–will become more clear as the book advances.

What does Kierkegaard say about death?

Apart from a few scattered remarks to the effect that death may not turn out to be “the end,” most of Kierkegaard and Death leaves aside the topic of the afterlife, in accordance with what is stated by the editors in their Introduction, i.e., that Kierkegaard’s work is primarily oriented toward finite human existence …

What exactly is sin?

Christian hamartiology describes sin as an act of offense against God by despising his persons and Christian biblical law, and by injuring others. In Christian views it is an evil human act, which violates the rational nature of man as well as God’s nature and his eternal law.

Why is Kierkegaard important to despair?

He comes to the conclusion that it is both. Despair is a type of suffering, so it must be bad. However, despair is a direct result of self-awareness, and increased self-awareness actually makes the self stronger. The stronger one’s self, the closer one is to God.

What does Kierkegaard mean by sickness unto death?

( The Sickness Unto Death) As a philosopher, Kierkegaard was extremely interested with ideas such as freedom, anxiety, despair, and what it means to live as a genuine human being.

What does Kierkegaard mean by despair over the Earth?

While there are numerous ways in which an individual, through various forms of self deception, hides from his awareness the fact that he lacks a self, Kierkegaard believed “despair over the earthly” to be “the commonest sort of despair”.

What is existential anxiety according to Kierkegaard?

Far from signifying a pathological state which one must strive to alleviate, Kierkegaard posited existential anxiety as an essential requirement on the path to selfhood:

What did Kierkegaard mean by the infinite and finite?

According to Kierkegaard human beings are a synthesis of opposites. One of these pairs of opposites he called the infinite and finite, writing: “For the self is a synthesis in which the finite is the limiting factor, and the infinite the expanding factor.” (The Sickness Unto Death)

author

Back to Top