Existentialism and the Three Modes of Existence

We all breathe within this world, we are all born and departed into this ground; some of us approach to portray a fortress of values, ethics, creeds and a never-ending trail of struggle, embodied with the deepest pursuit of happiness and bliss, hence parting, leaving behind a lingering glimpse of an unforgettable being, a prudent existence that if ever asked why, will give a million reasons to rescue its essence and core ; whilst others come and walk off, not even aware they have paced the loam of this universe, neither abandon any fleeting reminiscence that might reach out to tell a speck of perception about who they were and what have they done, just an indefinite identity buried in the mist of time, perfect strangers. And amid the milky Way, existence has been casted and sculptured so wisely and divinely, yet exceptionally reflective and simple, but only to those who are willing and fervent to travel around the genuine horizons of such a short journey and harvest the worth of what they sow, else waking up to hit upon an infinite sphere of melancholy and void.

Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher from the 19th century. Soren has been named the "Father of Existentialism".His profound philosophy has furthermore influenced the emerging of existential psychology (Alister 1993). Soren Kierkegaard's beliefs have cooperated a chiefly in influencing the development of the 20th century philosophy, namely “existentialism” and “postmodernism.”

Soren Kierkegaard disapproved of facets of the truth-seeking schemes that were argued by philosophers such as Friedrich Hegel, Georg Wilhelm, and the Danish Hegelians. He compared himself to the representation of philosophy which he uncovered in Socrates, and which intends to portray a person’s concentration not to descriptive methods, but relatively to the matter of how one truly subsists. He was as well ultimately impacted by the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (Matustik, M J 1995; Westphal 1995)

” But when the crowd is gone, when the event is over, you again stand on the street corner and look at the world (Kierkegaard 1983). Kierkegaard, one of history’s most intricate philosophers, have conferred about alienation, abstraction, death, anxiety, despair, ethics, selfhood, passion, subjectivity…What made Kierkegaard controversial and difficult, was not the approach he had upon numerous issues within the world, but also the pseudonymous works that were written on his values and perceptions. Soren puts in plain words that pseudonymous works are written down from standpoints which are not his own. Despite being a religious writer, Soren refused that religious perspective books are to be attributed to him. One book was The Point of View, where his author wrote from a Christian standpoint.

In his early works, Kierkegaard also differentiates between three crucial forms of life: the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious. Early on, American Kierkegaard academics attempted to diminish the density of Kierkegaard's authorship through shedding light on the three key levels of person subsistence, which are stated, taking notice of one of Solen Kierkegaard's aliases, Johannes Climacus, the author of Concluding, Unscientific Postscript. Despite the fact that the phases embody only a sole system of deducing Kierkegaard's contemplation, it has become an admired approach to launching his authorship amongst Anglo-American academics, where on the other hand, Europeans took the stage theory distinctly. A major analysis of stage theory is that each of the alleged levels of existence encircles those underneath it, for example, a moral individual is still able of aesthetic pleasure, and a religious individual is still capable of aesthetic delight and ethical sense of duty. The disparities between these lifestyles are internal, rather than external, as there are no signs one can touch upon to verify at what level a person is existing. Kierkegaard's preceding works, Either/Or, Fear and Trembling and Stages on Life's Way were all written under pseudonyms. Kierkegaard desired to cross the threshold and seek singular modes of perceiving the world in order to assist people see their personal circumstances with less doubt, and consequently being able to recognize and craft their own conclusions. Not that he doesn't have an individual view or wish for people’s consent, however it does make these writings slightly complicated to unravel as it is habitually tough to absolutely comprehend where Kierkegaard rests in proportion to the self-worth he possessed. Generally, Soren seems to believe that people should move across these diverse forms of life in order to reach out for the religious mode, the preeminent of them all, according to him.

Existentialism includes importance of individual, importance of choice, anxiety regarding extreme situations, meaning and absurdity, authenticity, social criticism, importance of social relations, religion and much more. Soren Kierkegaard was regarded as the father of existentialism (Cooper 1999). Kierkegaard believes that God is the inception and ending of the world and of every human craving. Existentialism can be considered as the 20^th century analogue of 19^th century’s idealism. Existentialism classically emphasizes on personal human lives and the touching predictability of suffering and freedom of choice for each individual. In the monarchy of Soren Kierkegaard, Existentialism is namely interconnected with the subsistence of a higher power, the aspect of God (Irvine, 1998)

As far as the aesthetic mode is concerned, the atheist person lives for the instance. He has no fond pledges to anything or anyone. He looks at life in terms of potential to be measured and enjoyed, not in terms of schemes to go all-out for or ethics to put into practice. He is not thoroughly impetuous, but is only concerned of pursuing long-term tempting goals, and will let go of them once they lose interest or something more thrilling comes into view. The aesthetic person is essentially passive and inactive, and hunts for contentment in aspects above which they are not in power of, and mostly reliant on what goes on in the external world. Since the aesthetic person's life has such an unsure basis, it might appear vacant and hollow. Aesthetic existence is described in several dissimilar ways in Kierkegaard's authorship, and amongst those matters, a life defined by rational pleasure, sumptuous longing, and a proclivity to understand oneself as if one were "on stage."

Perhaps, there is some consciousness of the likelihood of a superior figure of life, but the aesthetic person tries to avoid this either by keeping themselves very hectic that they don't find time to reflect about it, or by starting to perceive themselves as a depressed individual, where sorrow and grief for them are the significance of life. They may define and explain their melancholy as a certain fortune or tragedy, but by considering their own being in such defeatist words, they tend to pardon themselves from any liability for themselves and any compulsion to act and alter their state of affairs.

The ethical tends to be alert on selecting oneself, the ethical person sees himself as a purpose, and where the aesthete is continually abstracted by and disturbed of external things, the ethical person manages to direct his concentration and efforts towards their very own character, trying to be something above which they have control. This is where a person starts to engage in a proper course in life, thus becoming receptive to and individually responsible for good and evil and outlining a vow to oneself and others. A person’s proceedings at this point of existence have constancy and reason that they required in the earlier mode of life. For many Kierkegaard booklovers, the ethical aspect is fundamental. It urges each person to embrace their lives and to inspect their actions in terms of unconditional accountability. They scrutinize themselves to determine what they actually fancy, and whether they attain the things they embarked to achieve or not, it is not imperative, but more central is the extent to which they dedicate their whole selves into their activities. One of Soren's pseudonyms states that the ethical person communicates the widespread in their own life, more willingly than developing their singular personal ideas of right and wrong; nonetheless towards the end of Either/Or the ethical approach starts to appear more problematical, where it is recognized that specific outstanding individuals may fight to convey the ethical universal in their sole life.

The religious form of life is illustrated in Fear and Trembling text of many a tormented, nevertheless an astonishingly sage teenager. In fact, Kierkegaard was the first to talk about existential angst, and in my opinion it is in many ways enlightening to visualize him as the originator of teenage anguish, even though it's debatable that the intellectual substance of angst, has been on the way out ever since. In fact, Karl Barth, a Swiss Reformed theologian said that one should always be doubtful of anyone who did not fervently esteem Kierkegaard in their youth, and doubtful of anyone who still passionately respects Kierkegaard as they get older (Kierkegaard on Aesthetic, Ethical and Religious Modes of Life 2009).

Fear and Trembling is fundamentally all about the incapability of the ethical to understand faith, and is awfully intricate by bewilderment over the degree to which Kierkegaard really believes the things he writes. It is on the whole, a long contemplation on Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, and talks about the teleological suspension of the ethical, the doctrine that final causes exist and the leeway of committing immoral acts in outlook of a superior call from God (Marino 2004). The person of faith is isolated from others by his faith, unable to justify his actions to them. Kierkegaard’s pseudonyms who talk about stage theory, regard religion as the highest stage in human survival. In an argument about religious life, one of Kierkegaard's pseudonyms, Johannes Climacus, tells apart two kinds contained by this juncture, which have been called Religiousness A and Religiousness B. One type is denoted by the Greek philosopher Socrates, whose ardent pursuit of truth and entity conscience came into variance with his culture. Another type of spirituality is one typified by the awareness that the individual is immoral and is the source of falsehood. Over time, throughout disclosure and in straight association with the absurdity that is Jesus, the person starts to see that his or her endless salvation is dependent on a paradox, God, the uplifting, stepping into time in human figure to rescue human beings. The ethical and the religious are closely linked, where a person can be ethically solemn without being religious, but the religious stage comprises the ethical, whereas existing in the ethical realm entails a dedication to some ethical supreme power and living in the religious realm also involves a commitment to God. Faith is something which, in return to the call of God, captures a person outside of the kingdom of communally satisfactory behaviour, outside the perimeters of human rationale.

For Kierkegaard, the notion of this occurring was shocking to human reason, undeniably, it must be, and if it is not, then one does not truthfully comprehend the Incarnation or the meaning of human irreverence. Soren believed that the urge towards an awareness of a supreme power in the universe is what religion is about. Religion exhibits a social and a personal breadth; nevertheless begins with the individual and his or her responsiveness to immorality.

I personally prefer the ethical form of life. Because I believe that only through ethics and through the belief in habitual mores, or the customary social norms, we can attain ultimate happiness and peace. I’m an ethical individual who has tremendous and grave commitment to communication and decision procedures, and I’ve learned this throughout the entire course of my life and throughout my personal and mere relationship with the societies I’ve encountered. During my prior quest for a profound meaning and definition for life, I acquired lots of insight towards setting myself dexterously to laying down a range of indispensable conditions for ethically correct actions, including the necessity of choosing seriously and privately; commitment to the belief that the basics of good and evil of our actions have a truth and worth; the requirement to select what one is really doing, more willingly than just responding to a circumstances. Actions should be in compliance with rules, and these rules are universally pertinent to ethical causes. Being atheistic does not grant you the privileges of uncovering and experiencing the very best and the very worth and value of life. And being religious is not enough to travel around and realize eternal life and to be a person of a free-will. I accept as true that life is about value and love, and anything apart from those facets, will only lead to an identity which is undefined. We are not robots, we are born free and what is overwhelmingly beautiful about us, is the very fact that we are free, where we can term ourselves as the architects of our own lives, thus pursuing each and every goal without relinquishing at the barrier of any temptation and obstacle, a perfect approach to personal commitment.