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Kierkegaard's Theory of Boredom and the Development of Personality University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy Philosophy 2020 Kierkegaard's Theory of Boredom and the Development of Personality Luke Wadhams University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2020.225 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Wadhams, Luke, "Kierkegaard's Theory of Boredom and the Development of Personality" (2020). Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy. 25. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/philosophy_etds/25 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Luke Wadhams, Student Dr. Stefan Bird-Pollan, Major Professor Dr. Clare Batty, Director of Graduate Studies KIERKEGAARD’S THEORY OF BOREDOM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY ________________________________________ DISSERTATION ________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Luke Wadhams Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Stefan Bird-Pollan, Professor of Philosophy Lexington, Kentucky 2020 Copyright © Luke Wadhams 2020 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION KIERKEGAARD’S THEORY OF BOREDOM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY This dissertation examines the conception of boredom presented in the work of Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard is known for deriving philosophical insights into human nature from phenomenological analyses of various moods. However, while Kierkegaard provides explicit and complete accounts of anxiety, despair, and melancholy, his analyses of boredom are only ever fragmentary and dispersed. Additionally, most scholars either neglect Kierkegaard’s descriptions of boredom or dismiss them as mere novelty, and, even though a few scholars analyze the concept, there is still no sustained and thorough account of the same. This dissertation advances Kierkegaard scholarship by piecing together Kierkegaard’s theory of boredom from his fragmentary descriptions of the phenomenon. Through a close reading of Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Irony and Either/Or, the dissertation demonstrates two main claims about Kierkegaard’s theory. First, it shows that the experience of boredom can be understood in the work of Kierkegaard as expressive of the achievement of a reflective stance toward existence – a stance in which one begins questioning the meaning of one’s life and the ultimate justification for one’s actions. Second, the dissertation shows that, based on how Kierkegaard situates the concept of boredom within his general theory of personal development, the concept of boredom is a crucial component of his philosophical project of explaining the stages of life through which an individual passes in the development of an adequate conception of itself. Specifically, the dissertation argues that, within Kierkegaard’s theory of stages of life, boredom is a central concept of his account of the aesthetic and ethical stages. KEYWORDS: Kierkegaard, Boredom, Irony, Aestheticism, Personhood, Mood Luke Wadhams 04/15/2020 Date KIERKEGAARD’S THEORY OF BOREDOM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY By Luke Wadhams Stefan Bird-Pollan Director of Dissertation Clare Batty Director of Graduate Studies 04/15/2020 Date TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Method .................................................................................................................... 8 1.3 Overview of Chapters and Conclusions .................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 2. IRONY, LIVING POETICALLY, AND BOREDOM ......................... 13 2.1 Overview of the Connection between Irony and Boredom .................................. 13 2.2 The General Theory of Irony ................................................................................ 14 2.3 The Two Types of Irony and Living Poetically .................................................... 39 2.4 The First Form of Living Poetically – Romanticism ............................................ 42 2.5 The Critique of Romanticism and the Issue of Boredom ..................................... 59 2.6 The Second Form of Living Poetically – Mastered Irony .................................... 70 2.7 The Limitations of the Account of Irony and Boredom ....................................... 91 CHAPTER 3. AESTHETICISM AS THE LIFE-VIEW OF BOREDOM .................. 93 3.1 Introduction to and Overview of Either/Or ........................................................... 93 3.2 The General Theory of Stages on Life’s Way ...................................................... 96 3.3 The Aesthetic Stage of Life and Its Types .......................................................... 104 3.4 Reflective Aestheticism – Despair, Nihilism, Boredom, and Amusement ......... 114 3.5 The Rotation of Crops – A Theory of Boredom and Its Solution ....................... 128 CHAPTER 4. THE ETHICAL LIFE-VIEW AND THE OVERCOMING OF AESTHETICISM AND ITS BORDOM ........................................................................ 155 4.1 Overview of the Aesthetic and Ethical Views of Life ........................................ 155 4.2 Self-Choice and Ethical Personality ................................................................... 158 4.3 The Ethical Conception of Selfhood – The Natural and Spiritual Selves ........... 163 4.4 Absolute Choice and the Eternal Validity of the Self ......................................... 171 4.5 Continuity in the Ethical Life – Repentance and Duty ....................................... 176 4.6 The Critique of Reflective Aestheticism – Self-Choice and Self-Creation ........ 188 4.7 The Issue of Continuity – Boredom and Earnestness ......................................... 200 iii CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................... 209 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 217 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………223 iv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background In his so-called “aesthetic writings” (i.e., his set of pseudonymously published works between 1843 and 1850), Søren Kierkegaard is known for pursuing philosophical investigations into human nature through analyses of particular moods.1 As part of his rejection of the systematic philosophy of Hegelianism, the impersonal method of which Kierkegaard considers to compromise insight into the existential aspects of human life, Kierkegaard seeks an articulation of what Vincent McCarthy calls “the wisdom of experience.” 2 Kierkegaard’s goal in this period of his authorship is to examine human existence as it is concretely oriented within its world. It is within this context that Kierkegaard analyzes particular moods as constitutive and disclosive of human existence in its concreteness. The most well-known moods that Kierkegaard analyzes and upon which he founds his insights into human nature are depression, anxiety, and despair. In Either/Or: Part II, Kierkegaard examines depression, which he understands to be a “hysteria of the spirit,” in the following sense: There comes a moment in a person’s life when immediacy is ripe, so to speak, and when spirit requires a higher form, when it wants to lay hold of itself as spirit. […] If this does not happen, if the movement is halted, if it is repressed, then depression sets in.3 1 For a concise synopsis of the major divisions of Kierkegaard’s authorship, including an explanation of the pseudonymous period, cf. Mark C. Taylor, Kierkegaard’s
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