Kierkegaard
The Original Existentialist (The Bus 5.28)
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THURSDAY ARCHIVE EDITION - FIRST PUBLISHED (1.17) 2 JUNE 2022
The Stop
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was born in Copenhagen and left the city only five times in his life - four to visit Berlin and once to Sweden. Despite his lack of travel, the absence of a university professorship and a relatively short life, he became one of the 19th century’s most influential thinkers. Kierkegaard’s ‘work crosses the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, literary criticism, devotional literature and fiction’ - a wide variety of discourses he used for social and cultural criticism. Deeply religious, Kierkegaard was tormented by theological questions - specifically how one might renew the practice of the Christian faith within the mechanics of established Christendom.1
Widely considered the father of existentialism,2 Kierkegaard was a notorious crank. Everything about him was different. He had a twisted spine - ‘for which his enemies cruelly mocked him’ - and he ‘considered it a matter of principle to throw people off their stride.’ He ‘picked quarrels with his contemporaries, broke off personal relationships and generally made difficulties out of everything.’3 Embracing the Greek ideal that philosophers should be judged by their lives and not simply their intellectual works, Kierkegaard thought such a test applicable to anyone who truly lives. Theologically, he believed Christianity provided one of the most exacting standards for life due to its doctrine that, at the end of life, God alone validates the totality of one’s existence. Consequently, he believed judgement - on both the temporal and spiritual planes - must focus on one’s entire life and not just a particular part.4
Kierkegaard wrote, ‘Abstraction is disinterested, but for one who exists his existing is the supreme interest.’5 When developing his philosophy of existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre6 took Kierkegaard’s use of the word ‘existence’ to mean a description of the human way of being - that human life is only what we make of it while we exist. For the atheist Sartre, nothing exists before or after our lives to influence or affect the quality of our existence - it is purely our decisions which determine our lives. Agreeing with Kierkegaard, Sartre believed we create our existence by making ‘either/or’ choices throughout every step of life - and recognised that this lifetime of ‘constant choosing brings a pervasive anxiety, not unlike the vertigo that comes from looking over a cliff. It is not the fear of falling so much as the fear that you can’t trust yourself not to throw yourself off. Your head spins; you want to cling to something … but you can’t secure yourself so easily against the dangers that come with being free.’
For Sartre, this anxiety forces one to keep moving in the world, to create what ‘will be’ by ‘acting in the world and making a difference to it,’ but Kierkegaard believed the only correct response to this anguish/anxiety was to take the paradoxical ‘leap of faith’ into belief in God - whether or not you felt God existed. Making the conscious decision to plunge into accepting this ‘Absurdity’ - which can be neither rationally proved nor justified - was for him the ultimate way to define one’s existence.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to an article from Lapham’s Quarterly about issues created by the rise of colour photography in the early 20th century - ones which converted philosophical questions into actual problems. It’s a great read - and contains some great photos. It’s also a good reminder that there was - not too long ago - a time when taking a photograph was akin to doing something magical - and rare.
The Recommendation
Today’s book is Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 - in my opinion, one of the most existential works of fiction ever written. It’s a classic novel about the absurdity of war - and, by extension, life in general. Most importantly, it’s the ONLY novel I’ve taught that’s caused high school students to laugh out loud.7
The Sounds
Today’s Playlist is a collection of five tracks I feel convey a sense of the existential:8 ‘K.’ (Cigarettes After Sex, 2017), ‘Waltz #2 (XO)’ (Elliott Smith, 1998), ‘King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1’ (Neutral Milk Hotel, 1998), ‘Piazza, New York Catcher’ (Belle and Sebastian, 2003) and ‘Plateau’ (Meat Puppets, 1984). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from the Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius9 - and quite fitting, considering the nature of the Stop.
‘The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this stop - I hope you enjoyed a brief diversion from your regular journey!
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Until the next stop …
Kierkegaard was a highly complicated thinker with an equally complicated life - and the limits of The Bus mean this is a cursory glance at a slender fraction of his thoughts. I’ll return to aspects of Kierkegaard in future Stops, but if you’re interested, a relatively brief biography can be found here: Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard’s use of the word ‘existential’ to describe the problems of human existence became the origin point of the early 20th century philosophical school. An excellent, very readable introduction to existentialism is Sarah Bakewell’s At the Existentialist Cafe, New York: Other Press (2016), which - along with Kierkegaard - is a source for this Stop. See also: Existentialism.
He even played games with his publications, using his gift of creating the ‘attention-grabbing phrase.’ Kierkegaard first included the word ‘existential’ in the rather awkwardly titled Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments: a mimical-pathetical-dialectical compilation: an existential contribution. Other titles include The Sickness Unto Death, Either/Or, Fear and Trembling and From the Papers of One Still Living. It’s not everyone’s cup of philosophical tea, but Sickness was very influential on my thinking during graduate school.
Which, I guess, means everyone who’s ever made a mistake can breathe a sigh of relief. Phew.
Concluding Unscientific Postscript
Sartre is one of - if not the - most famous of the existentialists (both because of the quality of his thought and his skills at self-promotion). The Bakewell book provides an excellent review of his life and works, but for a brief biography, see: Sartre
Let’s just say, Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native doesn’t elicit a similar response.
Kierkegaard is one of those topics that doesn’t immediately inspire a playlist, so these are a few tracks I think manage to convey the feeling of existentialism. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I think the chorus of the Meat Puppets track offers a glimpse: ‘There’s nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop/And an illustrated book about birds/You see a lot up there but don't be scared/Who needs actions when you got words’. Indeed.