Joseph Pallattil
Existentialism can be understood as a reaction against the traditional philosophical systems especially Hegelianism. When Hegelianism started to lead the society, common men lost his own value, which lessens the dignity of human existence and personal individuality, lowering the individual person to a momentary existence. Existentialism provoked everyone to think about his own existence. Kierkegaard accused many of the philosophers of the past for paying more and more importance to universals. They were more concerned about abstract and objective ideas. They were scientific nominalists, but Kierkegaard’s nominalism was quite subjective. For him knowledge should be related to individual. If the knowledge is a generalised abstraction, it doesn’t have any meaning. For Kierkegaard philosophy is not an exercise in abstract arguments but a depth analysis of total human personality with a view to transforming him through a set of freely chosen values.
Kierkegaard always stood for the existence of the individual man. His existence is composed of three stages namely; the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. The stages of life contributed by Soren Kierkegaard is a perfect blend that says the ways to achieve perfect life. Kierkegaard helps us to find the way towards finding the meaning of our human existence.
The first stage of existence is aesthetic stage. “The aesthetic stage of existence is characterized by the following: immersion in sensuous experience; valorisation of possibility over actuality; egotism; fragmentation of the subject of experience; nihilistic wielding of irony and scepticism; and flight from boredom.” This stage of life is a type of escapism. It is a despairing stage that the individual tries to avoid commitments and responsibilities. It fails to understand his responsibilities towards the society and to recognize communal existence. His real aim will be the manipulation of people and situations in ways which generate interesting reflections in his own morbid mind. He lives for enjoying the moments of life. The end of aesthetic man will be despair and hopelessness. He suggests that if an individual want to embrace another stage of life other than aesthetical stage one needs to make a commitment. That means the one who is in aesthetic stage, also known as aesthete, want to choose the ethical stage.
It is the second stage of existence. This is certainly a transfer from the non-ethical, hedonistic life to an ethical and a decent life. Here in this stage the individual realises that the external pleasures are mere momentary and they are not eternal. He himself come to concentrate to his own inner capacities. According to Kierkegaard “in one sense the ethical must be seen as a dimension of all human lives; every human confronts questions about how life should be lived, what kinds of actions permissible or forbidden, what kind of character traits are desirable or undesirable, what is good and what is bad”. Here, he makes free choices and these choices bestow him with determination of life, then he understands the importance of moral law and he recognizes the majesty of God. When he reaches this moment, he came to know the importance of elementary virtues such as kindness, consideration love and charity. He understands that without these basic virtues he can’t lead a meaningful life.
It is the third stage of existence. The ethical person first believes in his own efficiency to fulfil the moral obligations. But in time he understands his own inability to fulfil the moral responsibilities. Afterwards he immediately knows about his sin and guilt which as absent until then. So, this consciousness of the ethical stage forms an anti-thesis to the ethical individual. Thus, the individual has the full freedom whether to accept the faith or to reject the faith. If the individual accepts the faith, then he overcomes the anti-thesis. The acceptance of the faith is typically a non-rational leap towards the faith. This involves the acknowledgement of God’s majesty. He will entrust himself under the protection of God. This choice will help him to transcend his own disabilities and to establish a personal kin relationship with the creator. Afterwards his life will be fully God oriented. This is the authentic life, for Kierkegaard that an individual can ever live. “He leaps into nothingness or to dark where the abyss of sin become the abyss of faith.”
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