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On Despair in Kierkegaard's Thought

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On Despair in Kierkegaard's Thought ON DESPAIR IN KIERKEGAARD'S THOUGHT BY STEVEN ROKOSZ DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor David Sussman, Chair Associate Professor Shelley Weinberg Assistant Professor Alexandra Newton Teaching Assistant Professor Jochen Bojanowski ABSTRACT Philosophers and religious believers have commonly held that suffering is a basic feature of human existence, while responding to this problem in different ways. Philosophers have often tried to mitigate suffering in their own lives through the pursuit of knowledge, virtue, and autonomy, but with penetrating insight, Kierkegaard argues that this offers no real escape from their affliction. Rather than depend on one's own efforts or understanding to resolve suffering, one ought to turn to Christianity with faith that one will attain salvation by receiving God's grace. In this study, I examine Kierkegaard's philosophical attempt to understand human suffering by analyzing his notion of despair, with the aim of determining why he thinks it should motivate the adoption of a religious way of life. He believes that a phenomenological investigation of human existence reveals that despair is central to our condition. In his view, it arises through the tension of being a free person situated in an impersonal world that operates coercively under principles of necessity, and thereby signifies our paradoxical nature as embodied spirits. Despair intensifies as our spiritual capacities of thought, imagination, and volition become realized over the course of our development. As freedom becomes realized, and we become more conscious of ourselves, we are likely to resist subordination to external forces beyond our control. Because freedom and the world that absorbs us are at odds, and both constitute us as human beings, despair is best understood as a state of disintegration in the person. Kierkegaard believes that to eliminate despair, the conflicting elements of our nature need to be harmonized so that integrity is achieved, but this is a paradoxical feat that cannot be accomplished without divine assistance. However, I challenge his claim that personal integrity requires religious faith, and argue that a person should be able to attain it on his own through an ethical way of life, which balances firmly held ideals and rational principles with concrete living. I also call into doubt his claim that despair is universal to humankind, and argue that he cannot consistently maintain that it is a state that the person brings upon himself through a misuse of will. His premises entail the disturbing conclusion that God brings it upon us in the process of creating us from nothing. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: THE CONSTITUTION AND DIALECTIC OF THE SELF............................19 CHAPTER 2: THE SELF IN IGNORANCE...........................................................................87 CHAPTER 3: THE SELF IN RECOIL..................................................................................145 CHAPTER 4: THE SELF IN FLIGHT..................................................................................171 CHAPTER 5: THE SELF UNDER OBLIGATION..............................................................217 CHAPTER 6: THE SELF IN REBELLION..........................................................................286 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................316 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................333 iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Works of Søren Kierkegaard CD Christian Discourses CA The Concept of Anxiety CI The Concept of Irony CUP Concluding Unscientific Postscript EUD Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses EO Either/Or, 2 vols. (Hong Translation) FT Fear and Trembling FSE For Self-Examination & Judge For Yourself! REP Repetition JP Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers, 7 vols. MLW "The Moment" and Late Writings PF Philosophical Fragments PC Practice in Christianity SUD The Sickness Unto Death (Hong Translation) SLW Stages on Life's Way TA Two Ages UDVS Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits WOL Works of Love Full details of publications can be found in the Bibliography. iv Introduction A spirit of optimism tends to resonate throughout society in the West, despite being occasionally disrupted by a national calamity, or curbed by economic or political crises. While this general mood brings cheer to many of us, and encourages those who are weary to bear with their plight with the hope of better times ahead, there is reason to think that as a matter of fact, all is not well in the world. One does not have to probe too deeply into the human psyche to understand why many would question this attitude that is impressed on us in through popular culture from a young age. A cursory glance at the state of the world would reveal that poverty, disease, mental illness, maltreatment, oppression, and violence are rampant in human life, some of which seems eminently preventable. Although we have taken measures to mitigate sources of suffering through advancements in areas like science and technology, we have hardly succeeded in controlling them completely. Without question, the call for racial and gender equality has made many of us more conscientious, and led to improvements in our situation as a whole, but political and economic injustice is still prevalent due to the radically unequal distribution of wealth. Those who are more globally conscious might be concerned about wars, famines, and exploitation of labor occurring overseas, even as the suffering experienced in these regions is difficult for most of us to imagine. Such anxieties call into question the overarching narrative of human progress and prosperity that is customarily accepted without serious questioning, and are prone to drive those affected by them to despair. It would be unfair to accuse those who doubt the popular narrative of stubborn faultfinding, or to discredit them by attributing their view to depression. Many raise these worries out of alarm for the human condition and a desire to set things aright, and not because they intend to spread gloom or be contrarians for the sake of it. Their pessimism might not be easily put to rest by the cool reassurance of others, who risk trivializing the issues in recommending confidence in our capacity to resolve the problems that continue to beleaguer us. At worst, these individuals might recommend blithe forgetfulness of them, which would only ensure that they would fail to be addressed adequately. Many of one's misgivings might be moral in nature and pertain to the actions of human beings, including one's own personal failings, but they might also stem from an awareness of danger and insecurity lurking in existence that none of us can get a firm handle on. For instance, death and adversity are uncomfortably at hand for 1 all of us, without us being able to do much about it. Some might respond to these worries by arguing that it is all a matter of perspective, and that the worldview of the unflagging optimist has just as much merit as that of someone more critical or pessimistic about the human condition or existence in general. Each side can offer reasons in defense of their view, but there remains the question of which evaluation is more truthful and has a preponderance of evidence on its side. Addressing this complex issue should be of concern to those who intend to approach life with honesty and insight into human existence, and so will likely be done by those want to live a good life. Life out of Balance Those who examine traditional sources of wisdom will likely conclude that sages and religious leaders have tended to side against the popular narrative in their reflections on human suffering and the ambiguities of life. A common refrain in major philosophical and religious circles has been that suffering is an elemental feature of human existence, regardless of nation or epoch. Many of the teachings propagated in the East intend to enlighten individuals about this phenomenon in hopes of liberating them from it, along with the despair that it can foster. Buddhists, for instance, believe that the first truth of existence is duhkha. This is a Sanskrit word often translated as 'dissatisfaction,' but with an etymology that suggests a wheel out of kilter.1 To get a sense of what this could mean, one might imagine riding in a carriage with a wheel that is out of alignment. A trip through the countryside might begin as pleasurable, but the wobbling and bouncing of the carriage eventually becomes irritating and disruptive, and eventually the trip is no longer very pleasing. Buddhists think that such a metaphor conveys a basic truth about human life. "Something basic and important isn't right. It bothers us, makes us unhappy, time after time ... no matter how hard we try to cultivate pleasure and keep it coming our way, eventually the pleasure recedes and the disturbance and vexation return. Nothing we do can keep them entirely at bay."2 Of course, Buddhists can appeal to the
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