FREE ESSAY ON THE SUFFERINGS OF A RATIONAL BEING, IN THE MIND OF SOREN KIERKEGAARD.

THE SUFFERINGS OF A RATIONAL BEING, IN THE MIND OF SOREN KIERKEGAARD.

The Sufferings of a Rational Being
in the mind of Soren Kierkegaard
I. Prologue.
In what would be characteristically seen as intrinsically manifested throughout the areas
of existentialism, this idea of suffering, its components, as well as its distinctiveness
on the part of the feebleness of human life becomes a common and usual conception for
Kierkegaard, so as not to be considered. The philosopher who has sparked the notion of
existentialism, as he had subjugated into the depths of human emotion and pain while
attuning to the experience of the obstinate human existence, Kierkegaard would be a
philosopher that has indeed rightly come to the connection of what underlies beneath the
core of human frailty and suffering. By this so, I have come to regard the notion with
what a suffering being in the facticity of existing could portray, and that amidst all
the concepts of understanding which would cause this, man would still participate of the
misery and despair that are quite partly inept of what his being is. This is quite a
vague notion to underlie but understanding Kierkegaard and his description of angst as a
conception that man is indeed trapped into the misery of life; the understanding of the
cause of his being would illuminate the ideas presented. In which case, Kierkegaard
meaningly construes the agony of despair with the being that man is, which he himself
views as being locked into the pressures of his vindictive existence.
II. despair, as the sickness unto death.
The notion of despair becomes unseemingly the principal lot to which Kierkegaard
expresses his outlook on the desolate existence of man. This concept, which manifestly
recognizes Kierkegaard as an existentialist, proceeds from a basic understanding that
despair is an attribute that is inherent in man, a concept which introduces him to be a
predestined being. 
Literally, the phrase ' Despair is the sickness unto death ' connotes an illness of which
outcome would be death, as death is doubtless the last phase in a sickness and yet for
Kierkegaard it would not appear to be the last thing' . As, he connotes in the strictest
sense, the last things being death itself, but death only the last thing, which makes
despair precisely the final thing for man. Hence, despair becomes the sickness unto
death. 
Kierkegaard notes this in bodily sickness, but far from being true, death only succumbs
to the end of the body, meaning to say to die from a bodily death. On the contrary,
despair is a sickness wherein there is no bodily death but eternal death, since the
torment of despair is not being able to die. 
As such, the sickness unto death becomes an expression of not dying. It is like a
terminal sickness where the only hope to get rid of it is to die, and while in despair,
gets rid of the only cure, of not being able to die, hence suffering eternal bodily
torment. There is no hope of cure, the hopelessness of not being to derived the pleasure
of dying is like death being dead itself. The danger of which says Kierkegaard, despair
clings to you even more terrible than that of bodily death.
For Kierkegaard, dying means that it is all over, but dying the death means to live to
experience death; and if for a single instant this experience is possible, it is
tantamount to experiencing it forever. Despair becomes an eternal sickness that the self
loses its capability of dying in the same sense that the body dies of sickness. An
impossibility, wherein what happens is that the dying of despair transforms itself
constantly into living thing. It is precisely self-consuming, that you cannot do anything
else but to despair itself go deeper and deeper into impotent self-consumation. The fact
that despairing cannot consume the body is the reason why the self-gnawing pain is
eternal since the comfort of ridding oneself of despair cannot be attained. 
In contrast, a despairing man can only despair about himself. He hopes to achieve the end
of his despair but is powerless to do so since his own anxiety over the despair that
consumes him. And the fact that he cannot get rid of the self which causes this despair
makes him a hapless being. For Kierkegaard, to get rid of the self which causes this
despair is quite impossible enough and to get rid of it would be in despair also since
the self is connected to the body. The body cannot live without a self thereby making the
self-indestructible hence the eternity of despair is a torment to be experienced by the
self.
Thus it is that despair, this eternal sickness in the self that is the sickness unto
death. The eternal sickness cannot be relieved even by death itself, and even if it were
possible the situation would still be in despair for it is connected to the self. And by
the self, the despairer would have no place to go except to despair itself, since to have
a self, to be a self, is the greatest concession made to man, but at the same time
eternity's to be relinquished upon him. 
III. The anatomy of suffering.
The despair as we have known is made manifest by Kierkegaard's foundation as his basis
for the eternal torment faced by man, that he himself cannot deny his despair over
himself. And what more he is powerless over this. Now, Kierkegaard's concept of human
suffering is in the fact a basic connection over the said basis for his ground as an
existentialist, meaning to say that he overwhelmingly attaches the self over to despair,
he gives in to this notion and throws away the key for self-deliverance. This context
however in the anatomy of human suffering, may also contain some light in it since
Kierkegaard wishes to expound the paradigm of suffering with connection to man's place in
the world. Unlike the contention for despair, this however may have a religious
prescience to the matter that equally is as compelling as his forethought of despair.
Kierkegaard sets forth in the anatomy of suffering with the urgency of hope, though I
will give this loose connection a more brief analysis in the next part of the paper, I
wish to start of with a positive introspection with Kierkegaard having been known to have
an outlook which is in direly connected with misery and anxiety. 
Kierkegaard sets forth in this perspective with a dialectic of suffering, in this case it
is assessed as an aesthetic category. A person, living in this so called aesthetic stage
should perceive suffering to be a rotatory condition, which is tandem of both an
infliction of pain and also by a surfeit of pleasure. In this instance, Kiekegaard
upholds an ethical and religious scheme in determining the forms of suffering that attend
to all human life. Earthly suffering which he connotes as the active human suffering we
know, cannot be neglected and so thus be a weighted arrangement for the conception of
ethico-religious advancement. It is closely associated to freedom, as Kierkegaard saying;
' a person who holds to a difficult position out of ethical conviction can escape the
opposition and hatred of others simply by giving in to their demands for conformity. Such
position may be heartily received back into the group, but nonetheless chooses to hold to
his or her position and consequently chooses this avoidable suffering that is taken to
the service of the good' . Such notion, Kierkegaard argues is believably noble in deed as
long as there is conviction in the stand that a person takes.
The willing to do good, is also given concordance as an aspect in the midst of avoidable
and unavoidable suffering. This is expressed in the book Purity of the Heart, saying the
readiness of the person to 'will the good in truth and the disposition and to let go of
double mindedness and the consolations of temporality' . In this case, one shifts from
the mundane and earthly resources and moves into a more enduring manifestation of the
goodness of human suffering.
At this point rather, Kierkegaard's position is that suffering can be reunited with
freedom and so it could be chosen. The suffering or (passio) he says cannot be sheer
passivity alone but it should come into contact with courage and resistance (both Mod and
Modstand quite respectively) so as to confront the disease of acting in avoidable
suffering . His understanding however, was that how can a person survive the debilitating
and numbing effects of suffering itself when the situation comes that it only belingers a
harsh judgmental mood for a person and renders him to mental frustration. The difficulty
in this sense is that person has to deal with the situation that may even ultimately lead
in hopelessness. In which case, Kierkegaard response to this only suggests that even in
the midst of powerlessness, one cannot be charged as the victim for in choosing to endure
the suffering, one should be still committed to the good . By this, it could only propose
that in so doing, the person is always in charge of his moral obligations and what he
chooses should be based on what should be morally correct.
In the book of Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard in a way expresses Abraham's earthly hope
for Isaac as being given up, but nonetheless shows a sense of eternal hope beyond the
calculations of his understanding . Abraham befalls in this sense to be overridden by
madness caused by the great love to his son that it becomes clearer his suffering becomes
a hatred for oneself . 
In the end, Kierkegaard stands up in the tradition that sees it as an 'educative'
formulation, which he connotes as a part of God's upbringing. What makes it so
distinctive however, is that the understanding for this educational upbringing sees
earthly suffering as a tool for character development. He describes how one, when gets
involved with God, the greater the difficulties that lie ahead. This would come into
connection that life itself becomes a school God made for suffering, He grants a test to
those whom he see worthy to be adjudged as a faithful follower and furnishes them with
suffering and anxiety as his guide.
In anyway, Kierkegaard views them both as a recognizance that God love puts a test to
human suffering. He attaches a brand that God's love may be more than just being pampered
and cuddled, he views this as a way a master treats his donkey, beating it up when it
goes in the wrong direction. 
In a way, Kierkegaard wishes to justify against a religious narcissism, which projects of
a comforting-Father figure that delivers one from earthly difficulties. He seeks to
eliminate the dangers conceiving a wrong notion of God and that, suffering places an
illegitimate notion placed upon man. With this in resolution, Kierkegaard only addresses
Christian hope in the midst of human suffering.
IV. Despair as Hopelessness.
Christian hope and expectation, which Kierkegaard profusely emanates from a Christian
standpoint, becomes his philosophy in having to deal with the concept of suffering. And
while he gives a brief introspection into what action this situation should employ,
Kierkegaard only manifest his impulse of which hope should facilitate in the areas of
Christian suffering and anxiety. 
In the sickness unto death, Kierkegaard sees despair as a disequilibrium, and in this
case, hopelessness takes over . For when we think of despair, we think of it as a loss of
possibility; a lack of prospects and a closed future, which is precisely the context of
what Kierkegaard sees as absolute angst. In this case, it is the angst that envelopes a
person such as that he becomes closed to hope. 
But going further, Kierkegaard aforementions a much greater angst and in this case, it
totally conceives the person of complete hopelessness, he now calls it the despair of the
infinite or of possibility. In this type of despair, one conceives of an exaggeration of
the infinite and the possible into a form of complete and unutterable despair that the
imagination becomes so unrelated to concrete life. In the emotional sphere, one may be
too involved with his sentiments, lost in his abstractions and giving up in useless
knowledge. Thus, the despairer in this case, considers an abrupt form of life that he has
and in which case suicide maybe an attempt to end the sufferings of the person. The
self-deception that maybe involved here is that one flees from the possibility of hope
simply because one has no use for it, and the undertaking becomes easier to decipate upon
the anxiety itself.
But what Kierkegaard, acknowledges here is that fixing one person's anxiety can only lead
to a much deeper form of anxiety, that a person sinks into. He regards that we need not
continue with this form of despair since it would sink one's will into a greater form of
despair and that is, not to will one's self to be open to possibility. The passive
collapse and self-hatred or the conscious self-defiance, is only a rejection of what a
person is called before God. Kierkegaard calls for faith in this case, as he said, faith
in the self is willing to be oneself and in which it rests transparently with God, for
the opposite of sin [of despair] is not virtue but faith . In this case what Kierkegaard
sees as despair consuming man can only be made contrary through belief in God the
infinite and possibility of change. 
V. The Dialectic of Christian Hope.
Soren Kierkegaard has always thought of despair and anxiety as parcel of the Christian
context of suffering. He understood this in a way in which suffering that is undergone by
man, is a cleansing process and much more, an itinerary that is consented by God. 
Kierkegaard approves of God's consent in human suffering, he gives it prior significance
in the introspection of human life as well as value in terms of understanding, to a
degree to which it contains a moral and religious esteem. In this case, his descriptions
of suffering can be compared and connected to the Christian's view, by which the
conception of hope is also clearly manifested. For this reason, Kierkegaard's description
of hope and suffering is sketched out in a way wherein dialectical distinctions are only
proven Christian suffering and hope are precisely distinctively Christian. 
So far, as we have looked into the ideas of hope and despair, that in turn are quite
traverse conceptions, they are like parallel sides on the area of human suffering and yet
while they seem distinct, they are also entirely connected to one another. This in
regard, which is depicted in human suffering is both indicatively present. Given only
reason, that they are however either actively or passive in attendance, belingers the
notion that one of them should dominate the other. But yet, in conditions of active
presence they both constitute the occurrence in human suffering. 
Kierkegaard in the dialectics of Christian suffering and hope views a manner that
astonishingly brings about a fresh incentive into Christian life. He, Kierkegaard
elucidates hope as the foster-mother of Christian life . In this way, he wishes to imply
that despair and anxiety has the history of Christian hope behind it. 
In which case, the dialectic of hope is variably seen in four parts, these in which
Kierkegaard mentions into four stages; the first one being the origins of hope in
youthfulness, as directed towards earthly temporal expectations, which following
disappointment, and also at the same time despair in possible forms. The second stage,
which is not an outright, conscious, despair, arises when one becomes sensible, then
would be the supportive calculation of understanding. 
We stumble on Kierkegaard's analysis of hope here as an examination of calculation. He
reviews this as 'sagacity and shrewdness' in forms of despairing hopelessness . And as we
have seen him inquisitive into the Sickness unto Death, which says the despair of
finitude and of necessity may include an unconscious resignation, and in which case one
should give up youthful hopes, reins in expectations, and calculates probabilities .
Kierkegaard would want to show that hopelessness is also indeed a part of the act of
hoping, this may appear vague, but the fact that hopelessness is connected into the act
itself imbibes the idea that it is parcel of what usually does when somebody hopes for
something. 
But this in fact strains hope, Kierkegaard says, yet not utterly diminishes it. Hope
itself cannot be defeated but only run down , it is like a quiet form of despair wherein
the despairer continues to absorb all the anxieties but not equally to fall down himself.
What is important, Kierkegaard recognizes is that hope should be kept alive, and this is
what the Christian interpretation of hope is all about. Kierkegaard does not advocate
irrational hope against what is probable, he does not believe in going against all the
odds, whatever the circumstances are, but he realistically grants that hope as long as it
is the earthly hope can be subjected to the calculations of probability. And furthermore,
earthly hopes can be tenacious in a spiritually destructive way .
The third stage of the dialectic of hope meanwhile is closely associated with the second
stage, which bases upon the supportive calculation of understanding. The problem however
is posed in the third stage, in this case it is because any earthly hopes are subject to
defeat and hidden despair. This in fact touches on what I have discussed a moment ago,
earthly hopes are in fact constantly being barraged by anxieties and other desolations,
it could be affected so much to the point that hopelessness takes over it. In the journal
entries on the dialectic of hope, Kierkegaard poses a question; how can hope be saved?
This question actually came in unanswered but the possibility of gaining hope continually
is being aware that hope is constant.
This brings us about to the last and final stage of dialectic hope, which is 'eternal
hope'. Eternal hope may sound to be specifically sharp and contrasting to the conception
of earthly hope, but it is quite similar in the sense that it is in the sphere of
Christian hope. For Kierkegaard, salvation is, humanly speaking utterly impossible, but
for God everything becomes possible. In this case, Kierkegaard mentions; 'whereas
experience is calculative, shrewd, and aware of the odds, leading to diminished hopes or
else, hopes pinned on the earthly alone, there opens up an 'eternal hope', a hope which
is not based on experience or calculations of sagacity . 
Here, Kierkegaard takes two opposite frames in order to understand life, on one frame, it
discusses about hope, it is a hoping against hope by virtue of the absurd; and not in the
sense of an irrational earthly hope, but a hope in spite of a realistic appraisal of the
odds against earthly hope . The other, which deals about the frame of experience, are
both internally opposed. 
In contrast, Kierkegaard uses the idea of the concept of the eternal hope to open up a
possibility, relieving the pressures of finitude and necessity that threatens to
suffocate a person; second hope is future-oriented, as we have seen, without having to
giving up one's past or recollection. Thirdly, hope is object-oriented, grounded not on
earthly calculation, which can be supremely realistic, but puts forward God as He alone
is the source of possibility. And lastly, eternal hope, brings about a person beyond the
'resignation of sagacity or despair', in this case while restraining one's hopes or
giving up hope altogether, hope is opened into broader prospects.
VI. Epilogue.
Kierkegaard's conception about the problematic stature of man's situation in the world,
as well as the emotional thrust of being able to grasp the melancholy of human existence
opted him to find refuge in the sagacity of Christian hope and the possibility of God.
Kierkegaard, in his philosophy of finding the essence of man's despair, as well as its
connection to human activity made his works purposive as well as significant in the areas
of human distress and suffering. In this case, which his works are basically existential
in nature is what I also myself find being into, that is, a being-existent in the world,
is groping into a similar situation. 
For we are indeed placed in a cradle where anxiety and despair are but a common notion to
all who experience the misery of life. The angst that Kierkegaard depicts in this
experience is what exists as a part of being able to cope up with life's agony, a part of
muddling through with the necessities that it expects of us to accomplish while we are
still confused and dreary of our situation. And while this is something more to undertake
like a gargantuan task of uncovering the truth, the whole process only shakes up our
faith and belief in hope as well as the infinite possibilities that is God.
Bibliography
Bibliography and related texts.
o Existentialism and Theism; Kierkegaard's Contribution to Existentialism.
o David J. Gouwens; Kierkegaard as a Religious Thinker.
o The Purity of Heart; Upbuilding Discourses at Various Spirits.
o Soren Kierkegaard; Fear and Trembling.
o Soren Kierkegaard; Despair is the Sickness Unto Death.
o The Sickness Unto Death; Existentialism and Theism; Kierkegaard's Contribution of
Existentialism.
o The Anatomy of Suffering; Becoming Christian II; Kierkegaard as a Religious Thinker.
o Despair as Hopelessness; Kierkegaard as a Religious Thinker.
o The Dialectic of Hope; Kierkegaard as a Religious Thinker.