The suffering and pain experienced in daily life by individuals Frankl, needs to be understood within the context of greater, global meaning-making Baumeister, and the transformation of stressful events Park, Recent research has shown that health anxiety, health-related life events and somatization during Covid can increase chronic pain Chaturvedi, as well as psychological suffering Pietrabissa and Simpson, ; Walsh, Numerous scientists have emphasized that coping strategies, resilience and transformation of meaning-making are needed to deal with Covid constructively Bland, ; Rettie and Daniels, Bland , p.
According to Yalom , p. According to Greening , humans create mental health when they are able to respond to all of these four aspects through acceptance and creativity.
The selected existential givens Greenberg et al. Both of the theories have gained importance through the pandemic Wong, a , b ; Krasovska et al. Albert Camus — is one of the famous pioneers in the French history of existentialism. He was a novelist, political activist, essayist and editor, as well as a journalist and playwright Aronson, Although he was described as philosopher and existentialist, he often denied these ascriptions Arendt, ; Sherman, ; Sharpe, During his short life, Camus dealt with questions of life and death, absurdity and meaning and presented these topics in his novels, essays and writings Arendt, ; Aronson, Through his professional and creative expressions, Camus focused further on questions of existentialism, the aspect of the human fate, meaning in life in the face of death, as well as suicide Aronson, These existential questions have experienced a strong revival during the start of the new century Hayden, and again during Covid Walsh, ; Wong, a , b.
According to Walsh , people in the Covid pandemic have to cope with multiple losses, such as complicated and traumatic deaths, isolation and loss of physical contact, loss of jobs, livelihoods, and financial security, and the loss of hopes and dreams, accompanied by shattered assumptions. They have to overcome human vulnerability and toxic interdependence by being creative and building resilience and hope.
This study's primary aim is to explore the life and work of Albert Camus with special regard to questions of how to view life and death and how to lead a meaningful life in times of crises, absurdity, suffering and pain through this psychobiographical investigation. By doing so, this study adds, on the one hand, to fostering psychobiographical work on French -Algerian philosophers, authors and journalists and, on the other hand, explores topics of existential positive psychology PP2.
This psychobiographical investigation is also used to contribute to finding sustainable solutions to deal with extreme global challenges, humankind's crises and disasters in the light of extraordinary approaches in psychobiographical perspectives. It is argued here that this potential of psychobiographical research has not yet been exploited to find best practices and practical applications to sustainably resolve humankind's challenges in their search for meaning and existential core concerns.
Therefore, individual solutions found in psychobiographies can act as role models for the readers of these psychobiographies. Finally, this article provides recommendations and best practices on how to approach the Covid pandemic from an existentialist perspective, using the TMT and PP2.
Becker developed the terror management theory TMT by exploring the question of how human beings can develop meaning in existential conditions to cope with life's challenges Barrett, ; Pyszczynski et al.
It has been pointed out that much of human behavior is driven by the fear of death—which is extensively triggered by the recent Covid pandemic Menzies and Menzies, TMT is based on the assumption that human beings foundationally fear death; consequently, death avoidance is anchored in concepts such as sustainability, self-esteem and self-worth Routledge et al.
The anxiety to die is overcome by believing in the meaningfulness of one's life, positive and peaceful relationships and uncertainty avoidance Becker, ; Pyszczynski et al. Through the denial of death, humans deal with their death anxiety and the higher the self-esteem and the better the close relationships, the less the death anxiety Juhl, The same is true for values and socio-cultural belief and assumptions: the stronger one's own values, the lower the death awareness Schimel et al.
Greenberg and Arndt , p. Further, in TMT, there is an ongoing debate about the question whether death anxiety is positive or negative Vail et al. It might be experienced as positive, enriching and impactful when the experience and awareness of death leads to an increase in meaning in life through the strengthening of intrinsically motivated goals Vail et al.
Fear of death might, however, also potentially lead to disruption of the experience of meaning in life, while the experience of meaning again might lead to a constructive way of coping and dealing with death in a mindful and aware way Heine et al. Yalom , p. Over the past decade Wong a , b has developed the existential positive psychology PP2.
While the first positive psychology PP1. According to Wong , this acceptance is only reached when pain, suffering and negativities are explored, experienced and integrated. Only with their integration can they be altered toward becoming a health resource with a positive impact Mayer and Vanderheiden, According to Hogan they can become key drivers of positive transformation in collaborative groups, providing positive collective responses to commonly shared problems.
Collective empowerment, solidarity and collective intelligence are additional drivers to transform the negative into the positive Hogan, This means that the negative and the positive aspects are being integrated and thereby transformed in all subdomains in positive psychology Wong, a , b. According to Wong , PP2. Meaning is viewed as an important part of well-being, happiness and part of a good life Wong, , a , b.
This study uses a case study design to explore the life and work of Albert Camus through the lens of the presented theories. The research paradigm is qualitative in nature and uses a hermeneutical-interpretative research approach Creswell, The sample is purposefully selected Shaheen and Pradhan, and focuses on one famous and extraordinary French-Algerian philosopher who explored existentialism and who published plays, novels and essays on existential questions, life and death, meaning and absurdity of life Camus, , a , b.
In particular, Camus wrote a novel on life in the times of a crisis, La Peste , narrating an allegorical account of the fight against an epidemic in Oran, a town in Algeria.
Camus, These self-reflections on life are presented as monologs which are held by the protagonist, a wealthy Parisian lawyer, in front of a stranger.
The monologs are a kind of confession and deal with issues of innocence, imprisonment, non-existence and truth and finally, the fall from grace. The novel, in its deeper sense, deals with the question of values, humankind's evil and explanations of how humans believe in their own kindness which covers their selfishness, egocentric and narcissism in a most unconscious manner.
Only when humans realize the underlying shadowy mindsets, do they experience crisis, which, in the case of the novel's protagonist, leads to his self-enhanced fall and ruining of his reputation.
In fact, all of Camus' works deal with existential values and questions within and beyond humanism, circling around the struggle with individual and societal crisis Camus, a , b , , but also the public and the private face and masks people wear.
The author developed interest in Camus and his life, as well as other French philosophers and existentialists, during the 's. Since then, the interest in Camus never subsided and became vividly alive during the past year of the pandemic in which the author experienced thoughts and reflections on human crisis which she had experienced reading Camus in the s. During the process of research, the author spent about 1 year reading and re-reading Camus' pieces, the primary and secondary data were collected.
The process of exploring Camus and his work started in the beginning of s and experienced a peak in when the pandemic hit the world. Therefore, the relationship of the researcher to the researched is a long-standing relationship and based on a deep, longitudinal interest and reflection. A five-step process of content analysis Terre Blanche et al.
The steps of analysis are familiarization and immersion, inducing themes, coding, elaboration, and interpretation and checking. The period of familarisation and immersion in the data started in the s and experienced a peak and expansion in , when primary data were re-read and secondary data were consulted to explore Camus' approach to life and death, meaning and absurdity in more depth within the context of Covid His writings were used to improve the understanding of the contemporary crisis and for self-transcending the situation of the global pandemic in a more conscious and informed way.
In the following different themes emerged and theories were explored which corresponded with the themes. The themes included life and death, meaning and absurdity and included codes, such as well-being, happiness, suicide, meaninglessness, irrationality, life worth living, joy, resilience etc. Primary and secondary data were coded and theories were applied while data were read by using different theoretical lenses.
Findings were then interpreted and checked. In terms of ethical considerations, this study follows the usual requirements for psychobiographical studies in which data are accessed from the public domain journals, newspapers, video clips and the like.
Data are treated with respect, and information about the subject of research is treated with fairness and consideration Ponterotto et al. As according to Ponterotto and Reynolds this study is supposed to contribute to the learning about the lives and works of others, about human diversity and the potential of human beings. Thereby, the subject of research is explored in an ethical, respectiful, empathetic and accountable manner Schultz, ; Ponterrotto, to, on the one hand, contribute to the public knowledge of Camus and on the other hand to exclude potential harm for the researched subject Wegner, Quality criteria were applied, such as trustworthiness and rigor.
Triangulation of data, theories and methodology was also applied. As is true for every study, this study comes with limitations. It is limited by being a single case study which focuses on life history data of one selected extraordinary individual. The study is descriptive and ideographic and provides in-depth insights regarding one individual only. The author reads all 3 languages fluently and all the reading, integrating and discussion of findings were done solely by herself.
No intersubjective validation processes during data collection, analysis and interpretation were carried out. Due to that self-centered, self-reflective and individual approach to the data, the findings might carry a strong subjective bias of the author which might be seen as a limitation to the study and the findings.
It needs to be highlighted that the researcher is a female Generation X researcher, who was born in Germany, holding a strong interest in and passion for French philosophy, literature and culture of the twentieth century. The author did not use any assistant throughout the entire research and writing before submission to the review process of the journal. This might be seen as a limitation and a risk of a strong subjective bias with regard to the selection of units of analysis and interpretation of the data and findings.
He grew up with his mother and grandmother in poor working-class family conditions. Camus spent his first years in Algiers, in the neighborhood of Belcourt. He was of the second-generation French immigrants to Algeria which was a French territory from to His paternal grandfather had moved to Algeria in search of a better life.
His poor living conditions in Algeria during his childhood, teenage years and young adulthood and his experience as an immigrant in Algeria influenced his life strongly. At the age of 11 in , Camus received a sponsorship to attend a prestigious lyceum near Algiers from one of his outstanding teachers, Louis Germain, who supported his educational endeavors. In , Camus contracted tuberculosis and lived with his uncle for a short period, before living on his own Cruickshank, From then onward, Camus had to deal with a life of suffering, pain and endless difficulty often spending time in southern France where the climate contributed to his healing and well-being Luckner, Camus' uncle and his philosophy teacher, Jean Grenier, mentored him in studying philosophy when he became interested in Friedrich Nietzsche and the ancient Greek philosophers, such as Plotinus and St.
Augustine Cruickshank, Three years later in , Camus enrolled at the University of Algiers and gained his Bachelor degree in philosophy while still recovering from tuberculosis Cruickshank, He wrote his thesis on Plotinus and was strongly influenced by Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Christian philosophers Luckner, One of his favorite ideas was that life is absurd; accordingly, he considered the absurd as playing a core role in French existentialism Sherman, However, he did not classify himself as an existentialist since he rejected the ideas of other existentialists, such as the contention of Sartre that there is secularity in life while seeing it as being absurd Sherman, Camus sees the world as unreasonable and the absurdity lies within the confrontation of irrationality and humankind's wild longing and striving for clarity Popova, Humankind and the world are only connected through absurdity.
Zaretsky , referencing Camus, suggests exploring the silence of the world—the non-responding universe—which contains the absurd. Only then can humankind realize that it has to respond to the question of where to find meaning and how to construct a life worth living themselves.
Camus prioritizes the idea that humans cannot and should not ascribe more meaning to death than to life Hendricks, This attitude is also reflected in the rejection of suicide as a solution to the experience of a meaningless life and to the idea of afterlife which, according to Camus, distracts from the acceptance of meaninglessness of life and life's enjoyment during this lifetime Hendricks, Death, however, is ultimately what keeps humans connected, since life ends for all humans with death Popova, The TMT explores the impact of death, and in particular death anxiety, on life's meaning Yalom, ; Steger, This fear of death leads humans to believe in creating a meaningful life which distracts them from their death anxiety Becker, ; Pyszczynski et al.
Camus, however, rejects this idea and instead believes in accepting a meaningless and absurd life and enjoying life for the simple reason of living, even without meaning Camus, b. The discourse of Camus a , b on life and death seems to be more fundamental and radical than that of the TMT, in the way that Camus is very clear about the absolute meaninglessness and absurdity of life.
TMT accepts that humans create meaning to avoid death anxiety and death awareness and does not necessarily emphasize a fundamental meaninglessness, but recognizes that increasing death awareness may bring about powerful change Yalom, This change is also addressed by Camus, who highlights that only through the awareness of death do humans find solidarity.
Particularly through hardship and catastrophes, humans can transform and become resilient and strong Hogan, In PP2. Camus thereby shows how human solidarity in the face of death can create a positive collective response and can be a key driver of individuals to create empowerment and solidarity as described by Hogan In several of his works, Camus a , b , touches on PP2. In , Camus received the Nobel Prize for Literature Cruickshank, as one of the youngest recipients ever. Camus' life ended tragically on January 4, , at the age of He had spent time with his friends and family in rural France and was on his way back to Paris with his friend and publisher, Michel Gallimard.
Of course, it might be objected that even if it is psychologically difficult to give without also receiving and in a manner that is tantamount to taking this does not in-itself constitute a refutation of the logic of genuine giving. According to Derrida, however, his discussion does not amount merely to an empirical or psychological claim about the difficulty of transcending an immature and egocentric conception of giving.
On the contrary, he wants to problematise the very possibility of a giving that can be unequivocally disassociated from receiving and taking. The important point is that, for Derrida, a genuine gift requires an anonymity of the giver, such that there is no accrued benefit in giving. The giver cannot even recognise that they are giving, for that would be to reabsorb their gift to the other person as some kind of testimony to the worth of the self — ie.
This is an extreme example, but Derrida claims that such a predicament afflicts all giving in more or less obvious ways. For him, the logic of a genuine gift actually requires that self and other be radically disparate, and have no obligations or claims upon each other of any kind. He argues that a genuine gift must involve neither an apprehension of a good deed done, nor the recognition by the other party that they have received, and this seems to render the actuality of any gift an impossibility.
Significantly, however, according to Derrida, the existential force of this demand for an absolute altruism can never be assuaged, and yet equally clearly it can also never be fulfilled, and this ensures that the condition of the possibility of the gift is inextricably associated with its impossibility. For Derrida, there is no solution to this type of problem, and no hint of a dialectic that might unify the apparent incommensurability in which possibility implies impossibility and vice versa.
At the same time, however, he does not intend simply to vacillate in hyperbolic and self-referential paradoxes. There is a sense in which deconstruction actually seeks genuine giving, hospitality, forgiving and mourning, even where it acknowledges that these concepts are forever elusive and can never actually be fulfilled.
It is also worth considering the aporia that Derrida associates with hospitality. If we contemplate giving up everything that we seek to possess and call our own, then most of us can empathise with just how difficult enacting any absolute hospitality would be. Despite this, however, Derrida insists that the whole idea of hospitality depends upon such an altruistic concept and is inconceivable without it OCF In fact, he argues that it is this internal tension that keeps the concept alive.
His point is relatively simple here; to be hospitable, it is first necessary that one must have the power to host. Hospitality hence makes claims to property ownership and it also partakes in the desire to establish a form of self-identity.
Secondly, there is the further point that in order to be hospitable, the host must also have some kind of control over the people who are being hosted.
This is because if the guests take over a house through force, then the host is no longer being hospitable towards them precisely because they are no longer in control of the situation. This means, for Derrida, that any attempt to behave hospitably is also always partly betrothed to the keeping of guests under control, to the closing of boundaries, to nationalism, and even to the exclusion of particular groups or ethnicities OH OH , GD Whether one invokes the current international preoccupation with border control, or simply the ubiquitous suburban fence and alarm system, it seems that hospitality always posits some kind of limit upon where the other can trespass, and hence has a tendency to be rather inhospitable.
On the other hand, as well as demanding some kind of mastery of house, country or nation, there is a sense in which the notion of hospitality demands a welcoming of whomever, or whatever, may be in need of that hospitality. In other words, hospitality also requires non-mastery, and the abandoning of all claims to property, or ownership. If that is the case, however, the ongoing possibility of hospitality thereby becomes circumvented, as there is no longer the possibility of hosting anyone, as again, there is no ownership or control.
Derrida discerns another aporia in regard to whether or not to forgive somebody who has caused us significant suffering or pain. This particular paradox revolves around the premise that if one forgives something that is actually forgivable, then one simply engages in calculative reasoning and hence does not really forgive.
OH However, he argues that this conditional forgiveness amounts more to amnesty and reconciliation than to genuine forgiveness OCF The pattern of this discussion is undoubtedly beginning to become familiar.
This forgiveness paradox depends, in one of its dual aspects, upon a radical disjunction between self and other. As soon as a third party intervenes, one can again speak of amnesty, reconciliation, reparation, etc.
Given that he also acknowledges that it is difficult to conceive of any such face-to-face encounter without a third party — as language itself must serve such a mediating function OCF 48 — forgiveness is caught in an aporia that ensures that its empirical actuality looks to be decidedly unlikely.
Indeed, Derrida explicitly argues that when we know anything of the other, or even understand their motivation in however minimal a way, this absolute forgiveness can no longer take place OCF Derrida can offer no resolution in regard to the impasse that obtains between these two notions between possible and impossible forgiving, between an amnesty where apologies are asked for and a more absolute forgiveness.
He will only insist that an oscillation between both sides of the aporia is necessary for responsibility OCF Hence the possibility of an impossible bereavement, where the only possible way to mourn, is to be unable to do so. For Freud, as well as for the psychologists Abraham and Torok whose work Derrida considers, successful mourning is primarily about the introjection of the other. After all, incorporation means that one has not totally assimilated the other, as there is still a difference and a heterogeneity EO Derrida considers this introjection to be an infidelity to the other.
If we refuse to engage with the dead other, we also exclude their foreignness from ourselves and hence prevent any transformative interaction with them. When fetishised in their externality in such a manner, the dead other really is lifeless and it is significant that Derrida describes the death of de Man in terms of the loss of exchange and of the transformational opportunities that he presented MDM xvi, cf WM. The other can neither be preserved as a foreign entity, nor introjected fully within.
Towards the end of Memoires: for Paul de Man , Derrida suggests that responsibility towards the other is about respecting and even emphasising this resistance MDM , Jack Reynolds Email: Jack.
Reynolds latrobe. Jacques Derrida — Jacques Derrida was one of the most well known twentieth century philosophers. Deconstructive Strategy Derrida, like many other contemporary European theorists, is preoccupied with undermining the oppositional tendencies that have befallen much of the Western philosophical tradition. Arche-writing In Of Grammatology and elsewhere, Derrida argues that signification, broadly conceived, always refers to other signs, and that one can never reach a sign that refers only to itself.
Supplement The logic of the supplement is also an important aspect of Of Grammatology. The Other a. The Gift The aporia that surrounds the gift revolves around the paradoxical thought that a genuine gift cannot actually be understood to be a gift. Hospitality It is also worth considering the aporia that Derrida associates with hospitality. Forgiveness Derrida discerns another aporia in regard to whether or not to forgive somebody who has caused us significant suffering or pain.
References and Further Reading a. Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice , inc. Dissemination , trans. Kamuf, ed. The Pragmatists focused on the impossibility of reason reaching beyond the frailties of limitations of human reason. Feminist theoreticians have devised a number of approaches to ethics that have at least this much in common: the denial of previous theories as being biased and deluded. Existentialism Existential Ethics. The doctrine asserts that all humans strive to forcibly impose their will upon others as a primal drive in their nature compels them to do so.
Man will relentlessly exercise his will over others as an example of his determination, spirit, and strength of character. To demonstrate and acquire his power and influence is his inherent motivation to act, even if his actions essentially seem unselfishly provoked.
Nietzsche alleges that no true altruistic deeds exist because humans are wholly egocentric and self-seeking by nature. We may give the impression that we are considerate, caring, and selfless as we may perform kind deeds for others that regard us as humane, but our innate intensions are truly self-absorbed and do not entail goodness or benevolence. By this, Nietzsche does not suggest by any means that mankind is innately malicious out of its deceptive intentions, but rather that it is more rapt in its own aspirations or purposes of life.
These aspirations are to be esteemed as an example of human prominence and not mistaken for the malice and deterioration of mankind. Conversely, sympathy, generosity, and equality are all qualities that one associates with good moral character, not with contemptibility as Nietzsche does. The noble spirit that Nietzsche speaks of would not embrace these traditional ethical traits. Traditional ethicists revile these characteristics and see them as they may prompt the decaying of civilization.
Nevertheless, Nietzsche merely suggests that it is instinctive of humans to inflict their will to power. Analogously, the Darwinist theory of evolution verifies such a claim as it is the survival of the fittest that determines what species endures and what species ceases to exist.
It is evident that the fundamental institution of morals into society is to impede many of our natural propensities in order to avert the chaotic unruliness that may arise from them. Nietzsche distinguishes between noble masters and base slaves souls.
The ancient Greeks were an animated people who paradoxically welcomed the inevitability of death, facing the ordeals and hardships of life, whilst celebrating its magnificence. The noble soul or master, according to Nietzsche, is a replica of the ancient Greek. His sickness indicates a drastic change from a past good health. Despair of infinitude reflects a man's desire to become infinite via phantasy but paradoxically the more one commits oneself to phantasy the more one loses of oneself.
The despair of finitude reflects indifference to the realm of selfhood. The despair of possibility reflects the lack of necessity or the lack of a stable point of evaluation from which the self can be measured.
The despair of necessity reflects the lack of possibility, or reflects the fruit of a fatalistic attitude toward existence. The despair of the sensuous man reflects the lack of willing to be one's real self. The despair over the Eternal admits the need for faith but dwells on the despair of weakness. The most adamant form of despair is that of defiance. Here the self rejects the synthesis, or relation with the Infinite, and seeks to be itself in spite of the Infinite.
Man's problem, or despair, for Kierkegaard, is related to the fact of sin. Sin takes three forms: l the sin of despairing over one's sin, as seen in the example of the man who despairingly declares: "I can never forgive myself for it.
When this is done, Kierkegaard maintains, no hope is left. Kierkegaard concluded his work on despair by saying that existence is serious.
The Incarnation is a serious act of God and as for man, "the seriousness in this seriousness is that everyone shall have an opinion about it.
Kierkegaard's view of God is crucial for this whole system of thinking. Hence the view of Hegel, his opponent, is important. Hegel regarded the Absolute as the sum total of reality. This Absolute Spirit is a process of self-reflection taking place in man. Thus knowledge of man is a knowledge of God, and the Absolute knows itself in the self-reflection of man.
This pantheizing view can hardly be identified with traditional theism, or philosophy of God's existence. But the matter was complicated in that Hegel regarded his philosophy as the absolute philosophy and Christianity as the absolute religion.
Moreover Christianity stood or fell with his philosophy. Kierkegaard rejected both the philosophy of Hegel as well as the identification of Hegelianism with Christianity. For our purposes, we will deal with only two issues in Kierkegaard's thought: religious knowledge and cultural religion. In his Philosophical Fragments , Kierkegaard raised the question of knowledge in general and religious knowledge in particular.
How can the Truth be known? Under the guise of the Socratic proposal, Kierkegaard elaborated the view of Hegel as a system in which knowledge is innate in man because he has the divine in him, or the Absolute comes to self-reflection in man. The role of a teacher--Socrates--is merely to ask the right questions to trigger the inward response of knowledge. Anyone--philosopher or charwoman--can be a mid-wife of ideas. No fees need be paid for the learner may also be the occasion for teaching the teacher.
On Hegel's ground, since man is the self-reflecting process of the Absolute, man need only look within himself to secure a knowledge of the Absolute. In contrast, Kierkegaard proposes another alternative. Suppose that the learner is ignorant, or is in a state of untruth, what happens then?
Or, suppose that man is not the Absolute in a self-reflecting process. What is the role of the Teacher? If this is true, the Teacher becomes all important.
Since the learner is in a state of Untruth he must also be given the condition for receiving the truth. But any teacher who can do this is more than an ordinary teacher. In this alternative the teacher is God. How does God appear on the scene? Kierkegaard's answer is found in the Incarnation, or the Christian idea that God took manhood to himself in the person of Jesus, the Christ.
The motivation for the incarnation is love. Love takes the initiative and seeks equality, but man and God are not equals. The incarnation does three things: l it makes a meaningful knowledge of God understandable, for God comes himself, 2 it makes redemption or reconciliation of man back to God possible, and 3 it preserves the idea of the holy which was demolished in Hegel's pantheism.
Kierkegaard's story of the anxiety of the king reveals some of these ideas in an allegory. The king was mighty and every nation feared his wrath. He had fallen in love with a commoner, but like all men he was anxious when it came to getting married.
The thought that entered his kingly mind was this: "Would she be able to summon confidence enough never to remember what the king wished only to forget that he was a king and that she was a humble maiden? If the marriage were unequal the beauty of their love would be lost. A number of alternatives could be suggested to the king. First, he could elevate the maiden to his side and forget the inequality.
But there was always the possible thought coming into her heart that after all she was a commoner and he was the king. Such a marriage could be consummated but love would never be on the basis of equality. Second, should someone suggest that the king could display his majesty, pomp, and glory she would fall down and worship him, to be humbled by the fact that so great a favor was being bestowed upon her.
To this the king would undoubtedly demand the execution of the person suggesting this as high treason against his beloved. The king could not enter into a relationship such as this. The kingly dilemma is solved in the third alternative; the king should descend and thereby give up his throne to become a commoner for the purpose of loving the maiden as an equal.
Kierkegaard then applied this story to the relationship between God and man. God could have elevated man into his presence and transfigured him to fill his life with joy for eternity. But the king, knowing the human heart, would not stand for this, for it would end only in self-deception. To this Kierkegaard said, "No one is so terribly deceived as he who does not suspect it.
Regarding this Kierkegaard said,. There once lived a people who had a profound understanding of the divine. This people thought that no man could see God and live--who grasps this contradiction of sorrow; not to reveal oneself is the death of love, to reveal oneself is the death of the beloved. The holiness of God revealed to sinful man would have brought the destruction of man. Thus the alternative for bringing the union of God and man is the same as for the King.
Since we have found that the union could not be brought about by the elevation it must be attempted by the descent. In order that the union may be brought about God must become the equal of such a one and so he will appear in the lives of the humblest, for the humblest is one who must serve others.
God will therefore appear in the form of a servant. The other item about religion is equally important. Hegelian philosophy permeated the Church of Denmark in Kierkegaard's day. To be born into the state and its church was the same as being born a Christian.
A state church was suspect. This made the parsons--a term frequently used by him--royal functionaries. And royal functionaries have nothing to do with Christianity. He rebelled against the identification of religion and Christianity.
His Attack Upon Christendom is a sharp polemic upon a watered down version of Christianity. Unlike some existentialists who ignore or attack religion in general or Christianity in particular, he sought to criticize it from within, hoping to restore it to its apostolic, or original quality. In this he was interested in provoking thought on what it means to be a Christian. Does one express the essence of Christianity on the basis of attending the Sunday sermon, and submitting to certain religious rites in the church, i.
By no means, said Kierkegaard, to be a Christian is to be committed to Christ. Contemporaneity with Christ means that faith involves a living vital relationship with a living Savior. There are no disciples at second-hand, nor is there a cultural species of this religion. Nineteen hundred and some odd years later makes no difference from the perspective of the resurrected, living Christ.
The existential dimension of Christianity floods light upon other problems that concerned Kierkegaard. He rejected the use of "proofs" or arguments for God's existence since an argument loses its I-Thou involvement. The argument ends with an abstract God rather than the living God. By the same token, Jesus is not to be viewed speculatively or aesthetically.
An aesthetic or admirer's stance toward Jesus involves no commitment. The demand of a revealed religion is for commitment, not speculation. The demand of revealed religion is for commitment, not admiration. Jesus came to make disciples, not philosophers. Contemporaneity means that no historical person has the advantage over later generations. Peter's vital and important relationship was based upon faith or commitment, and not on the fact that he ate with Jesus upon occasion.
A disciple is a committed one, not merely a historian of miscellaneous facts. The twentieth century disciple is on the same footing as the first century disciples--faith, no more, no less. Kierkegaard can be misunderstood very easily when the area of values is considered. His own positive position is hard enough to understand without wildly interpreting some of his statements. He warned that his work is a "corrective" for the systems of Kant and Hegel and others.
For Kierkegaard, values and ethical issues cannot be based upon l abstract universal laws, 2 humanistic standards of reason, and 3 social patterns as related to cultural studies.
They are inadequate for many reasons which will become obvious in the summary statement below. Kierkegaard deals with the issue in various books, but one example will point up his thinking.
According to the pagan customs of the day, Abraham could have done this as a religious service. But Hebrew value on human life was different, and Abraham treasured the only son of his old age. Since God commanded it, would Abraham have been regarded as a murderer? At this point Kierkegaard distinguished between the universal and the absolute. The ethical is the universal and applies to everything, everyone, and every instance. The universal is identified with natural law, law of reason, or dictates of culture.
If Abraham is judged on the universal, he should be indicted for murder, rather than to emerge as a hero of faith. Where does the Absolute come in? The Absolute here is not in the sense of the Absolute of Hegel.
The absolute is contrasted to the universal and the absolute is higher than the universal. What is the source of the universal? Is the universal personal? What is its authority? These questions point beyond the impersonal universal to the Personal Absolute--God. The authority back of the universal is God. Universals may have usefulness in ethical systems, but must not be separated from the authority of the lawgiver as it became in the ethical system of Kant.
The traditional question of medieval thought emerges here in Kierkegaard: is God the standard of the good, or is there a standard to which God must conform? Kierkegaard answered that God is the standard and could have dictated a different universal law if he so desired. This is the point of his question: is there a theological suspension of the ethical? Or, in other words, had Abraham really sacrificed Isaac at the command of God, would he have been a murderer?
The context of this discussion would require a negative answer. Real danger lurks at this point in misunderstanding Kierkegaard if the conclusion is reached that Kierkegaard is suspending ethical principles. The affirmation of the teleological suspension is to make this point: separation of the universal from the absolute, or the separation of the moral law from the law-giver is to create a new idolatry. The universal is the way it is because it expresses the nature of God. In other ways, it may be said, if man's purpose in life is the pursuit of happiness, or the fulfillment of the moral law, if anything other than God is the final end and goal of man, then a new idolatry is born.
Kierkegaard does not work out the manner in which the universal and the absolute could be related but his central point is that ethics must begin with God. Kierkegaard is sometimes misused to advance the case for relativism and subjectivism in ethics.
But his position is really an affirmation of objectivism--the good is known in the self-revelation of God. The typical options offered as alternatives have their problems. Humanistic ethics as well as cultural ethics are as subjective as their sources.
Formalistic ethics--based upon the sense of duty--without the Commander behind the duty is idolatrous even though the system may be worthy of commendation. Kierkegaard would pity the man who pursued the good but lost God.
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