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Johannes Climacus built a metaphorical ladder to heaven Hegel built a metaphorical ladder to Spirit In TSUD K. is going to bring God directly to the self
TSUD in Exposition
What you just read is the super-readers digest condensed version of the book What follows is a very detailed exposition of the entirety of the book, section by section Abandon all hope and despair, ye who enter here
PREFACE TO TSUD A Christian book should edify (uplift) It should not simply be scientific This stems from Christianitys unique mission Methodological rigor is secondary
Notice this provides an easy defense to attacks on Ks argument But also reflects Ks distaste of system-building & methodology Kierkegaard preferred (Socratic) deconstruction, interrogation & irony
PREFACE
K sees himself as a physician at the sickbed the patient doesnt understand medical terms so the physician need only convey that information which cures the patient So, even if the physician adopts an informal style for patients sake,
dont take the physician any less seriously
Anti-Climacus acts as physician who will cure your sickness unto death
Note: the sickness is not death itself, but the despair that precedes death
and yet dying - to depart this world - is in fact the only cure for despair
INTRODUCTION
Phrase sickness unto death refers to John 11:4 Jesus Christ stated before reviving Lazarus that Ls sickness was not unto death Thus, JC cured Lazarus death But, wait a minute
INTRODUCTION
So saying that Ls sickness was not unto death would be true even if JC had not revived Lazarus from death And after Ls resurrection, what next?
L would eventually die anyway so raising him from the dead was not much of a cure
INTRODUCTION So was the sickness to which JC referred the physical ailment that killed Lazarus? Or was JC referring to some other sickness?
Are there sicknesses that wont kill you? Yes, psychological, or spiritual sicknesses Such sickness can cause misery, but is not itself fatal
INTRODUCTION
Christians do not fear what most non-Christians fear; to wit, mortality Pagans fear what doesnt scare Christians: death But Christians face a larger fear the ramifications of immortality This fear, that of an eternal despair that wont end with death, is the sickness unto death
INTRODUCTION This is an interesting argument even if you dont believe in an immortal soul After all, even most Christians are unsure about what immortality could mean Secular interpretation?
Even if your despair finally ends with your death
the structure of your very Self ensures you always suffer the pain of despair while alive
unless you re-balance your Self to something other than yourself
Might a relationship to something else also provide the equilibrium and/or rest to which he refers?
PART ONE
PART 1.A.A
PART 1.A.A: DEFINITIONS Human being is spirit But a human being is not necessarily a Self
Self =
relation between temporal & infinite aspects of human existence which has been established by another
Soul Infinite
SYNTHESIS
Possibility (THESIS)
This relation between thesis & antithesis creates a synthesis But this synthesis alone is not the Self You can be a human being & yet not have a Self
imbalanced
PART 1.A.A: DEFINITIONS To become a Self you must relate to your own relation Thus, Selfhood is an ongoing process
its a verb not a noun
Possibility
Soul Infinite
SYNTHESIS
In other words, the Self is the process of reflecting upon the various parameters of your body & soul
(THESIS)
Negative unity is a Hegelian term Presumably, N.U. means a static combination of elements
but not a dynamic selfrelation
This is the Self Its dynamic relation to itself forms a positive unity Note Ks use of Hegelian terms
K was opposed to many of Hs conclusions but not Hs logic
body
SYNTHESIS
Per Hegel, Spirit cannot come into existence without one selfconsciousness relating to another self-consciousness
E.g., Lord & bondsman Each defines the others identity
This introspective reflection upon your relation to yourself creates the self-established self (SES) SES can lead to only one form of despair: Not wanting to be yourself Why would that be?
PART 1.A.A: INHERENT FLAW IN THE SELF The self-relating body/soul synthesis that makes up the SES is unbalanced if its sole reference is itself This imbalance results in a kind of vertigo This self-established self is like an imbalanced spinning top that cannot attain equilibrium Equilibrium implies a constant oscillation or rotation
This is your self-relating psyche which can be in or out of balance
But what happens if your self (soul/body) relates itself to that which created the relation (i.e., God)? Because the third element of your self-relation is now external to you it has a referent (see Hegel), so your Self can now become balanced If you recognize Gods role in your creation, then means you will no longer necessarily want to be rid of yourself
but the possibility will always remain because you are always tempted to escape (or deny) your grounding
GOD
(as grounding)
Your self
Yes, this frees you from your grounding but resisting your dependence upon God always places your Self out of balance This is the 2nd kind of despair
wanting to take sole control of yourself & your fate & therefore not yielding to your grounding in God
PART 1.A.B: POSSIBILITY & ACTUALITY OF DESPAIR Despair both merit & defect The possibility of the sickness separates us from beasts The recognition of the sickness separates Christians from pagans To be cured is the Christians blessedness
PART 1.A.B: POSSIBILITY & ACTUALITY OF DESPAIR But despair results not simply from the imbalance residing in the synthesis that comprises the self
(body/soul and its aspects)
PART 1.A.B: POSSIBILITY & ACTUALITY OF DESPAIR So, unless you apply a constant effort to fight despair, it will always recur,
it cannot be cured like an illness, because this imbalance is hard-wired into the aspects of your psyche You cannot have a self without your eternal spirit relating to itself, & the spirit contains the imbalance
Physical sicknesses occurs through no fault of the patient But despair is a sickness you bring upon yourself
Someone in despair thinks he is in despair over something But hes really in despair over himself being something he doesnt want to be
or of not being something he wants to be
If someone despairs over failing to become Caesar, he is not despairing over the fact of the failure
but over himself for not becoming Caesar
Of course, had he become Caesar, he would still have been in despair
but despair of a different kind that of wanting to be oneself
Or take a woman who lost her lover through death or infidelity She may think she is upset over the loss
but she is really upset over having to live with herself in a state of loss &/or shame
One can similarly prove the eternal in man by showing that despair does not consume the self
The sickness unto death is not the kind of sickness that could end with death The torment of this sickness is that will not end with death The sickness means you eternally experience the feeling of dying, without actually dying
Just as no one has perfect physical health, everyone has at least some level of despair within them This may seem like gloomy news, but in fact is uplifting for confirming that all men have spirit within them But people misunderstand the nature of despair, & therefore think it is rare when in fact it is common
Usually, people are considered healthy unless they feel ill But a physician knows there can be merely imagined health, just a there can be merely imagined illness Passing dejection can be an affectation of despair, but it is not despair itself
Despair has different dialectical character from physical illness Physical health is an immediate characteristic which becomes dialectical only in a state of sickness But there is no immediate state of spiritual health
Despair is the unconsciousness of being spirit Even underneath the greatest physical fortune lies dread underneath All immediacy is dread, & it is most in dread of nothing
Despair is most common in those who dont realize they have it.
But those who realize they do have it are at least a bit closer to being cured
Much is spoken of wasting ones life But the only life wasted is the one that is deceived by lifes earthly pleasures
or by its sorrows
Earthly distractions keep you from understanding your spiritual aspect But the true horror of this spiritual sickness is its hiddenness
Despair is an intrinsic possibility arising from the process of self-consciousness Different levels of self-consciousness distinguish the different types of despair But different levels of consciousness also mean different levels of self Note the implication:
Less consciousness means less will & less self!
Freedom, in turn, is the dialectical element in the categories of possibility & necessity Later, well get to the aspect of consciousness & unconsciousness So, three polarities make up despairs aspects
1. Finitude vs. infinitude 2. Possibility vs. necessity 3. Consciousness vs. unconsciousness
(a) Under the aspect of finitude/infinitude Self is conscious synthesis of finitude / infinitude
Whose task is to become itself Which is only possible via relationship to God
But the self never finishes synthesizing its finite & infinite aspects The self develops only through an endless state of Becoming But to never stop becoming is precisely to despair
Humans who want to become infinite will succumb to despair Infinitudes despair is the imagination Imagination is endless self-reflection
The fantastic carries someone away into the infinite, making an abstract sensitivity A person whose imagination roams too freely becomes too abstract You lose yourself to eternity
One can make this mistake & still lead an apparently happy religious life While dwelling on the infinite, you ignore your lack of a deeper Self Mastering the objective knowledge is so distracting that you risk losing your Self
Worldliness ascribes infinite value to objective knowledge The worldly point of view always focuses on the differences between men, by objectifying them Becoming finitized, you become not a Self, but simply a person,
merely one more repetition of this perpetual Einerlei (one-&-thesame / all-the-same)
This kind of self is cheated of itself by the others This kind of self finds it easier to be like the others, to be a copy, a number, along with the crowd. Society would consider this person to be just what a human being ought to be This kind of despair makes life convenient & comfortable Such people despair by pawning themselves to the world
For the purpose of becoming a self, possibility & necessity are just as essential as finitude & infinitude So the self is made up of finitude & infinitude, but that self is freedom Freedom, in turn, is the dialectical element in the categories of possibility & necessity Later, well get to the aspect of consciousness
Possibilitys despair is to lack necessity To the extent that the self is itself, it is necessary To the extent the self must become itself, it is possibility Possibility is like offering a child a treat
The child says yes straightaway
But then theres the question of whether the childs parents will consent
So it is with necessity
Everything is possible in possibility One form is the wishful, the hankering (hope) The other is the melancholic-fantastic (dread) But if you simply spend your time hoping for good things, or worrying about bad things, you wont focus on the present
Necessitys despair is to lack possibility If possibility is like having nothing but vowels, necessity is like having nothing but consonants
That is, you are struck speechless
But the petit bourgeois lose possibility in a different way They worship God, but only in a vulgar & trivial way
This is because he perceived the possible only through the probable This misses the majesty of God
To be aware of yourself & God, you need to whirl up higher than the dank air of the probable But the petit bourgeois mentality lacks the imagination to comprehend hope & fear Only if life helps now & then
with terrors that transcend the parrot-wisdom of banal experience will the comfortable petit bourgeois mentality ever despair
At least fatalists & determinists have the imagination to despair of possibility The person lost in possibility soars with the boldness with despair The person lost in necessity is bent down carrying the weight of despair But the petit bourgeois mentality spiritlessly triumphs
Rising consciousness intensifies despair Decreasing consciousness reduces despair In fact, it might be a dialectical question whether true unconsciousness even constitutes despair But then, it also implies a lack of spirit as well!
Ignorance of even having a self is a kind of despair Totally dominated by sensuous & psycho-sensuous reactions Lives in categories of the sensate Most people prefer to live in the basement of their own house, which is to say, the sensate world They lack the courage to imagine themselves as spirit
People are least afraid of being in error Hegel erected a huge building (his System) that encompassed all of life & world-history But turning to his own personal life, he sees that he has been living in
a store-house a kennel, a janitors quarters
If despair is a distraction
then being unaware of this fact is also a delusion
The relation between ignorance & despair is like that of ignorance & dread (see K.s Concept of Anxiety) The dread in a spiritless person is recognizable precisely because of his sense of spiritless security As soon as illusion is broken
then it is clear that despair was lying underneath the whole time
If despair is a negativity
then ignorance of despair is an new negativity but you have to pass through both to cure the despair
However, ethico-dialectically, the person cured of ignorance may stray even further from deliverance
Because the despair now becomes more intense
Thus, living an ethical life does not necessarily bring you closer to deliverance
but in fact simply more deeply in despair!
that is, you come to realize just how hard it is to live ethically which makes you want to fight against the demands it places upon you
Aesthetic individuals, & even whole pagan societies, are capable of great aesthetic achievement, but Aesthetes & pagans do not ground their existence in God
but rather they self-ground themselves
or in some abstract (e.g., the State)
they are therefore capable of only aesthetic virtues which are really ethical vices!
This is why, for example, pagans had no real problem with suicide, a mortal sin in Christianity
Thus, there is a difference between Greek pagans & Christian pagans Greek pagans lack spirit
but are at least directed toward spirit
Some may perceive they are in despair without really understanding what despair is In other words, they misunderstand what despair is & how it works So conscious despair requires an understanding of what real despair is Thus, someone can feel symptoms of a sickness
without understanding the nature of that sickness
Without understanding the nature of his sickness, he may misdiagnose the cause Alternatively, he may distract himself from such worries
by thinking about work or other business
However, it may not occur to him that he is doing this to keep himself in the dark about his despair
Or he may understand he is doing this to district himself from despair
but doesnt understand the consequences of such behavior
The opposite of being in despair is to have faith The formula for faith is this: in relating to yourself, you want to be yourself, but while grounded with your establishing power Thus, faith is the sum of 3 factors:
Self-reflection + acceptance + relating your self-relation to God
This is the conscious despair of not wanting to be yourself This is more of a feminine, i.e., weak, form of despair There is no purely masculine or feminine form of despair, however, just general trends Two versions: despair over the earthly or the eternal
Despairing over the earthly is to live in total immediacy Its dialectic is material good or its absence:
pleasantness vs unpleasantness, or good fortune vs misfortune
If you lose some material or earthly possession, you may first encounter despair
but then you misunderstand what you are despairing over
This can lead to not wanting to be yourself, or worse, wanting to be someone else entirely This treats the self like clothing that can be taken off, or switched with another item To wish for a new self is comic, by misunderstanding the nature of the self This foreshadows existentialism:
Because essence follows existence, it is impossible to trade out one essence for another. Why? Your existence builds your essence, i.e., your self!
They feel despair for having failed to meet their earthly goals
but choose the wrong solution by wanting to fix this problem by simply
wishing for better luck, or obtaining a new identity, etc.
He simply doesnt have the capacity for selfreflection that will allow him to break with immediacy He misunderstands his self as a kind of house that he inhabits You cant move away from your self & into a new self, simply because youre dissatisfied with yourself!
Alternatively, he may try to succeed in this world He gets a wife, a family, a respectable position in society, etc. But hes simply a Christian pagan He may ask a priest about immortality, & query whether hell see his self in the next life
Which is a pressing question, seeing as he in fact has no self!
Despair over the earthly is the most common form of despair Because its so thin, its rarely seen, but this doesnt mean it isnt despair Very few people live spiritual lives, & in fact to neglect the earthly in favor of spirit would strike modern society as
an inexcusable waste of time & a treason against humanity
Most people have a false conception of despair as something that afflicts the young & inexperienced
But the reality is that most people are no wiser in old age than they were as youth
Youth despair by hoping for the future The elderly despair by living with cherry-picked happy memories
In spiritual terms, no human being attains any wisdom or faith simply as a matter of course
It takes work & honest self-reflection
In a sense, to despair over earthly matters is also to despair over the eternal
You cant get upset over earthly failures unless you assign undue value to the earthly
But to elevate the earthly as worthy of concern is necessarily to devalue the eternal
& thus despair over the eternal
Focusing on the eternal, people may feel self-pity & chagrin at worrying only about earthly matters
As a result, they feel unworthy of the eternal, and thus despair over the eternal
But if you dwell on hating yourself for your weakness, you lose faith in Gods forgiveness
and therefore commit a more defiant form of despair
Once you despair over the eternal, youve progressed to a higher stage
& theres no going back
Any self with the slightest drop of reflection soon learns restraint Outwardly, hell attempt to be a real person Hell live a normal, Christian life But he thinks most priests are full of nonsense
those who he finds persuasive worry him, & he soon learns to tune them out because by paying attention to closely
hell be forced to confront that little locked door (reserve)
He will spend time alone, away from the distractions of trivial social culture
but will return soon enough
If hes honest with himself, he would realize that hes really engaging in a form of pride
Pride because hes unwilling to continue the constant selfreflection necessary to break down the self He thus lives hour-to-hour & soon returns to his family
Despairing over his weakness in being unwilling to come to terms with the eternal
Further, continuing in this pent-up state runs the risk of suicide He may instead confess his weakness to a friend But, embarrassed by such a display, the despairer is likely to return to pent-up reserve But that itself is pride, & therefore defiance This unwillingness to accept ones own weakness may ultimately lead to a demonic defiance
The other form of conscious despair is that of defiance Defiance is a more masculine form of assertive despair It results from people wanting to be themselves, without having to accept their dependence upon a higher power The person has self-consciousness of an infinite self, & is aware of his despairing nature, but cant accept it
People want an infinite, abstract self, but they are unwilling to ground their existence There can be an active & passive despairs of defiance Despairing actively is to want to become an experimental god
he assumes a godlike seriousness but ultimately becoming no self
because his self is grounded upon nothing like a king without a country
In passive despair, one simply loses hope that God can make anything possible
& simply mopes over the futility of existence
Thats because they wont accept the humiliation that comes with submission
to a God that would otherwise offer them assistance
PART TWO
Despair is Sin
Successive stages of the self (before God) Part One dealt with successive stages of self-consciousness The self before God is now seen in a whole new light
it becomes a theological self
A herdsman before cattle is a very low self A master before slaves is no self at all. Why?
Because there is no standard of measurement provided A ruler must be longer than that which it measures
A child is raised by parents to see the State as the ultimate standard to define the self
Most of us can meet societys expectations of us
People think of crimes as being sinful Murder, theft, etc. But perhaps these are really just products of a sinful outlook on life Sin is a shameless unwillingness or inability to admit to the kind of obligation one owes to God Again, think of acedia, or sloth
As a definition, sin is an algebraic formula Describing individual sins is a mistake Sin is a net which embraces all forms
The definition of sin includes the possibility of offense Speculative thought (i.e., Hegelian Christianity) never considers the individual person before God Such an idea offends the sensibilities People are offended by Christianitys message because they find it too elevated, dark, severe
How would your sensibilities be offended? Imagine a day laborer invited by the king to enter his palace and marry his daughter The laborers first instinct is to think hes being punked! But in fact K. says all of us are individuals before God
The sum total of human wisdom seems to make everything fit into a Golden (or gold-plated) Mean But Christianity isnt like that
there is no middle ground, no moderation its hyper-polarizing and goes off to the absurd
Those who try to defend Christianity using reason betray it with a kiss like Judas To defend something always to discredit it Because its defense implies its weakness Doing so connives with offense by making Christianity out to be some miserable object that in the end must be rescued by a defense Let a rich man give away all of his gold to the poor But if he tries to first give 3 good reasons to justify it, people will doubt whether it was a good idea in the 1ST place The person who defends Christianity never believed in it
Pagans & Christians alike are willing to acknowledge the existence of sin But its the idea of sin against God they cant handle Asking Christians to measure themselves against Gods standard is to ask too much of most of them
they are mere mortals
But Christian sin cannot be defined by ignorance, but by willful denial It is a matter of doing the wrong thing while knowing the right thing
Far too many people profess to understand what sin is, & its gravity But leap aside like a faint-hearted coward as soon as they might be inconvenienced by avoiding sin They are too absorbed in worldliness & comfort & seeking social approval
Per Socrates, if someone does not do the right thing, that must mean he has not understood it Per K., failure to do the right thing is a function of people not wanting to understand it
They dont make a sincere attempt to understand the right thing They simply put off the decision about what must be right until tomorrow But delaying the hard choices removes the urgency of the question
and allows the will to simply do what it wants
One problem with the Greeks is that they assume people fail to do the right thing because they dont understand what the right thing is In fact, Socrates flaw is that he fails to account for why people refuse to do the right thing, even though they know what it is. Christianity understand that sin is a failure of the will, not the intellect
The possibility of offense lies in that God must reveal to man what sin is & how far deep it goes In Christian eyes, sin lies in the will, not the knowing Christianity cant be comprehended so much as believed
Orthodoxy has always rejected as pantheistic the idea that sin is simply ignorance The secret of all comprehension is that comprehending must be greater than that which is comprehended But that cant apply to Christianity
it is simply to be believed not understood
What we need is a bit more Socratic ignorance Christendom needs fewer people comprehending Christianity
it simply cant be reached through reason
Socrates ignorance (i.e., wisdom) was based on fear of God & worship of the divine
He did not presume to know what mortals cannot know
Socrates understands, contra Hegel, that the difference between man & God is best approached through paradox & faith It is not a matter of trying to merge man & God into one
as Hegels System proposes
But people who are unconscious of despair are still in a state of despair, simply in a lesser state In fact, most people are more spiritless than sinful
But even if they are not sinful as such, the spiritless are still to blame
because they were not born spiritless
In every generation, there are only 3 poets But priests are plentiful
more than even get jobs as priests
Priests are supposed to be believers but now they absurdly give 3 rational grounds to conclude
that prayer is a blessing that surpasses all understanding
Reasons, after all, lie within the scope of understanding Would someone in love give reasons for why they are in love?
Someone who is in love cant prove why thats the case & someone who gives reasons only proves that he isnt
People can occasionally maintain some self-consciousness some of the time But they cant do it all of the time Most people can be spirit only once a week for about an hour Sinners can only register individual sins But they cant understand that they live in a constant state of sin
People can perhaps be good for a while, before they forget themselves, But inevitably they fall into despair, do something wrong again, etc. They join in lifes game
but they never connect all the pieces together because they have no conception of an infinite consistency in themselves
People who despair over their sin spend too much time in self-pity to consider that grace might save them People who despair over sin may think they are being morally serious, but they arent They are simply feeling sorry for themselves
and resent God for setting rules that are too difficult to follow without understanding that Gods forgiveness means its never impossible to try to follow the rules sincerely
Whether you can forgive yourself for your sins isnt the point
You must look to God for forgiveness
Some sinners think its now a sign of genius & deep nature to reject the idea of forgiveness
but in fact its just a sign of insubordination Naughtiness is not a sign of deep nature in a child
The Jews were justified to take offense at the idea of Jesus forgiving ones sins Frankly, it takes a great deal of spiritlessness to believe a sin can be forgiven at all Pagans dont have this kind of sin
because theirs was not a religion that brought God & man together as closely as Christianity In fact, one would have to commend the pagan who actually despaired over his sin
The Jews were justified to take offense at the idea of Jesus forgiving ones sins It takes a great deal of spiritlessness to believe a sin can be forgiven at all But who is K. targeting with this section?
After all, what Christians out there believe in God but not forgiveness? Kant, with his emphasis on ethics (which precludes forgiveness)? Or Hegel, for whom forgiveness seems to derive from the State?
What has gone wrong with Christendom is that by being preached daily, the name of God is taken in vain First with an air of superiority in speculative philosophy Then vulgarly in the streets and alley-ways If order is to be maintained in existence
then the first consideration must be that every human being is an individual human being
But Hegels concepts of reconciling God & man contradicts this Once people are allowed to be treated as a crowd or herd
i.e., described simply as humanity then its easy to then make God an abstraction
Understandably, many of the philosophers involved in propagating this doctrine of the superiority of the generation over the individual turn away in disgust when their teaching has sunk to the level where the mob is the Godman. But these philosophers forget that this nevertheless is their teaching, that it was not more true when accepted in the best circles, when the elite of the best circles, or a select circle of philosophers, was the incarnation. It is God who discovered the doctrine of the God-man, and now Christendom has cheekily turned it around and foists the kinship on God so that Gods concession amounts more or less to what it means in these times for a king to grant a more liberal constitution and we know well enough what that means: He pretty well had to.
This is a slam on how Hegels original notion of God-as-world-spirit has degenerated into 19th C. popular culture The point is that these conceptions of speculative philosophy try to merge God & mankind into the same thing
Doing so negates Gods superiority, and his ability alone to forgive individual sins
It is frivolous and a new sin to pretend that being an individual sinner is nothing
The doctrine of sin unconditionally splits up the crowd, and confirms the qualitative difference between God and man most radically Thats because sins are only before God, and only God can forgive them Thinking of offence without thinking of someone who is offended is as much an impossibility as flute-playing without a flautist Offence thus relates to the individual making every human being into an individual sinner
So if Christianity says thou shalt believe, either you shall be offended, or you shall believe; there is no mediation
Mass movements may have been able to make kings and emperors bow down
But no mass movement is going to be able to make God bow down too Because we are all constantly individuals before God
Declaring Christianity to be untruth is a sin against the Holy Spirit Despairing of the forgiveness of ones sins is a defensive sin, a retreat from the implications of Christianity But abandoning Christianity is offensive warfare All previous forms of despair conceded the superior strength to God, but now sin is the agressor
To best illustrate the nature of this offense, lets review the various forms of offense: 1st, there are those who take no position on the issue of Christianity
they are undecided they ignore the Christian demand thou shalt
3rd, there is the positive form of offense, declaring Christianity a lie and a myth, this in turn is a denial of everything Christian This kind of sin usually goes unnoticed because people do not consider the opposite of sin to be faith and not that the opposite of sin is virtue But that opposition has been in effect throughout the book The formula to cure despair is faith Faith = Relating itself to itself, and in wanting to be itself, the self is grounded transparently in the power which established it Simply put, faith is not merely belief
but an unending, self-reflecting belief