In “The Sickness Unto Death”, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard presents the idea that humans are in a constant state of becoming. For Kierkegaard, this process of becoming is defined by a continuous striving towards an ideal self that is never fully realized. This ideal self is what Kierkegaard calls the “authentic self”. It is only through coming to grips with the fact that the authentic self is something that can never be fully attained that humans can begin to live meaningful lives.
In order to understand Kierkegaard’s idea of the authentic self, it is first necessary to understand his concept of the “empty self”. The empty self is the self that humans create in order to avoid facing up to the fact that they will never attain their authentic selves. This empty self is nothing more than a facade, a false sense of who we are. It is an attempt to create a false sense of security in a world that is fundamentally uncertain. The empty self is a way of denying the reality of our own finitude. Kierkegaard believed that it is only through coming to terms with our own mortality that we can begin to live authentic lives.
The problem with living our lives from within the confines of the empty self is that it leads to what Kierkegaard calls “despair”. Despair is not simply sadness or disappointment, but rather it is the realization that one’s life has no inherent purpose or meaning. It is the despair of not knowing who we are or why we are here. This type of despair can only be overcome by coming to terms with the fact that our authentic selves are something that we can never fully attain. Once we accept this fact, we can begin to live our lives in accordance with our true nature.
The empty self is a way of avoiding this difficult task. Kierkegaard believed that the only way to overcome the empty self is to choose to live in faith. Faith is the belief in something that is beyond our understanding. It is the faith that leads us to trust in something that we cannot see. We must have faith in our authentic selves, in spite of the fact that we will never fully attain them. This faith is the source of our courage.
“The Sickness Unto Death’ is a German expression meaning ‘the disease to life’. This is an ironic statement because the disease to life is death. The disease to life is the disease that prevents us from living our lives in accordance with our true nature. The disease to life is an illusion.
Kierkegaard’s main task in the book is to teach the reader how to live a meaningful life in the face of despair. This task is accomplished through a series of dialogues between the author and a character named A. In these dialogues, Kierkegaard uses the character of A to represent the average person who is living in a state of despair. Kierkegaard believes that it is only through coming to grips with our own mortality that we can begin to live authentic lives.
The character of A is used to illustrate this point. A is a debilitated man who has lost all hope for the future. He is completely resigned to the fact that he will die, but he is not ready to accept that he will die alone. A is a perfect example of the person who is convinced that he will never be happy and is therefore unwilling to take action to improve his life. A is convinced that he is trapped in a permanent state of despair. This is not true, however, because A is able to recognize that he is trapped and that he has a choice as to how he will spend his life. A can choose to spend his life in despair or he can choose to live a meaningful life in spite of his despair.
For Kierkegaard, “the self is not the relation (which relates to itself) but the relation’s relating to itself.” From the start, he shifts from a Cartesian or essentialist view of the self to an existentialist one. Whereas for Descartes “self” is a common noun, for Kierkegaard, it is a gerund. And the embedded verb, to relate, points to the dynamics of the self. In this case, relating to itself. Kierkegaard argues that the self is essentially an existential relation. It is not a simple or static entity but rather is constantly in a state of dynamic change. Thus, we cannot get to the essence of the self by looking at the way it relates to other entities. We must look at the way it relates to itself. This is why A is so important to Kierkegaard. A represents the average person who is living in a state of despair and who is not ready to face the reality of his or her own condition.
The first despair is that “which is ignorant of being in despair, or the despairing ignorance of having a self and an eternal self.” Similar to the “unexamined life” of Socrates, this is the unexamined self. And for Kierkegaard, this is the most common despair, though the individuals involved aren’t aware of it. It is the despair that comes from not recognizing our own existence. We are so focused on our individual selves that we fail to see the larger picture. This is the despair that comes from living in a state of ignorance. Like A, we are living in a state of despair without even realizing it.
In the Christian worldview, “a human being is a synthesis of the infinite and finite,” and therefore the tension between these poles becomes the source of next two types of despair: “wanting in despair to be oneself” and “not wanting in despair to be oneself.” Kierkegaard believes that the key to resolving these two types of despair is to come to grips with the tension between the infinite and finite. He calls this tension “the agony of choice.” The person who wants in despair to be oneself is the person who is too afraid to face the fact that he or she is finite. This person is afraid of death and therefore chooses to avoid life.
The person who does not want in despair to be oneself is the person who is too afraid to face the fact that he or she is infinite. This person is afraid of life and therefore chooses to avoid death. Kierkegaard believes that both of these types of despair are resolved by coming to grips with the tension between the infinite and finite.
For Kierkegaard, despair is the sickness unto death, one different from an ordinary sickness that leads to physical death. Within the Christian framework, physical death may be a path toward eternal life and a dying person may hope for the life after. But despair, as the sickness unto death, is when one hopes for death as a resolution, but the person cannot die. Hence, the despair. Such despair presupposes life after death. For the atheistic existentialist, such as Sartre or Camus, death is the ultimate end and creates the despair by nullifying hope and achievement and life. For Kierkegaard, despair is a form of sin that can only be absolved through a relationship with God. This is the key difference between Kierkegaard and the atheistic existentialists.
For Kierkegaard, despair can be resolved through a leap of faith, an act of will that affirms belief in spite of the evidence to the contrary. This is what makes Kierkegaard’s brand of existentialism unique.