A existência no pensamento de Kierkegaard

Abstract

Sören Kierkegaard’s works give special meaning to the theme “existence”, as the specific human mode of being, considered as an individual. According to Kierkegaard, the existential condition of individual is marked by anguish, despair and paradox of faith. The categories which best characterize the existential condition are possibility and election, since the individual faces a series of possible scenarios from which he/she must make a choice. Thus the individual stands in isolation before the world, others and God, and according to his choices, the individual determines his specific way of life. Kierkegaard conceived three types of existence: the esthetical existence if the individual’s choice is related to pleasure as the center and aim of his life, living for outwardness. The ethical existence, if the individual chooses to live the outwardness mediated by the generality of the ethics. The ethical existence consists in the responsible relationship with another based on the obligation, in the case of Christianity, is founded on love. However, the individual may find that the ethical norm points to an absolute as its foundation, and so is not able, on his/her own, to find full satisfaction in his/her own concrete existence of individuality. In this manner, the individual moves further still towards his/her own interiorness experiencing a repetition, since the individual has an absolute relation with the absolute, reaching that personal satisfaction known as eternal beatitude. And so, one has the religious stage of existence, which for Kierkegaard is the highest stage one can obtain.