Kierkegaard’s Construction of the Human Self

• Authors: Georgios Patios
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The purpose of this article is to analyze Kierkegaard’s philosophical views concerning the problem of the nature of the human self. With the help of a close examination of Kierkegaard’s texts The Concept of Anxiety and The Sickness unto Death, we argue that Kierkegaard “constructs” the human self in a specific way. This way reveals, through the examination by Kierkegaard of “anxiety” and “despair,” three main characteristics of the human self: a)~the self is a dynamic process, always “becoming” in time through free will and freedom of choice, b)~the human self is always a historical self, so that history is then a direct product of “becoming a self,” and c)~the human self, in order to be “whole,” must freely ground itself in a transcendental being (God).

Keywords

EN

anxiety; despair; faith; free will; freedom of choice; history; Kierkegaard, Søren; self

• Publisher: Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie
• Journal: Forum Philosophicum
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 37–47

Dates

delivered

2013-08-31

accepted

2013-09-06

Contributors

author

Georgios Patios

References

• Evans, C. Stephen. Kierkegaard on Faith and the Self. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2006.
• Kierkegaard, Søren. The Concept of Anxiety. Translated by Reidar Thomte and Albert B. Anderson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.
• Kierkegaard, Søren. The Sickness unto Death. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.
• Lubcke, Poul. “Freedom and Morality.” In Kierkegaard and Freedom, edited by James Giles, 93–105. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
• Mooney, F. Edward. Selves in Discord and Resolve. New York; London: Routledge, 1996.

Identifiers

DOI

10.5840/forphil20131813

URI

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=93997872&lang=pl&site=ehost-live

URI

http://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=forphil&id=forphil_2013_0018_0001_0037_0047&onlyautologin=true