The Philosophy Book

195

Hamlet is caught on the edge of a

terrible choice: whether to kill his uncle

or leave his father’s death unavenged.

Shakespeare’s play demonstrates the

anxiety of true freedom of choice.

See also: Immanuel Kant 164–71 ■ Georg Hegel 178–85 ■ Friedrich Nietzsche 214–21 ■ Martin Heidegger 252–55 ■
Jean-Paul Sartre 268–71 ■ Simone De Beauvoir 276–77 ■ Albert Camus 284–85

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION

those choices is critical to our lives.
Like Hegel, he sees moral decisions
as a choice between the hedonistic
(self-gratifying) and the ethical. But
where Hegel thought this choice was
largely determined by the historical
and environmental conditions of our
times, Kierkegaard believes that
moral choices are absolutely free,
and above all subjective. It is our will
alone that determines our judgement,
he says. However, far from being a
reason for happiness, this complete
freedom of choice provokes in us a
feeling of anxiety or dread.
Kierkegaard explains this feeling
in his book, The Concept of Anxiety.
As an example, he asks us to
consider a man standing on a cliff
or tall building. If this man looks
over the edge, he experiences two
different kinds of fear: the fear of
falling, and fear brought on by the
impulse to throw himself off the
edge. This second type of fear, or
anxiety, arises from the realization
that he has absolute freedom to
choose whether to jump or not,
and this fear is as dizzying as his
vertigo. Kierkegaard suggests that

we experience the same anxiety

in all our moral choices, when we

realize that we have the freedom

to make even the most terrifying

decisions. He describes this anxiety

as “the dizziness of freedom”, and

goes on to explain that although it

induces despair, it can also shake

us from our unthinking responses

by making us more aware of the

available choices. In this way it

increases our self-awareness and

sense of personal responsibility.

The father of existentialism

Kierkegaard’s ideas were largely

rejected by his contemporaries, but

proved highly influential to later

generations. His insistence on the

importance and freedom of our

choices, and our continual search

for meaning and purpose, was

to provide the framework for

existentialism. This philosophy,

developed by Friedrich Nietzsche

and Martin Heidegger, was later

fully defined by Jean-Paul Sartre.

It explores the ways in which we

can live meaningfully in a godless

universe, where every act is a

choice, except the act of our own

birth. Unlike these later thinkers,

Kierkegaard did not abandon his

faith in God, but he was the first to

acknowledge the realization of self-

consciousness and the “dizziness”

or fear of absolute freedom. ■

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard was born in

Copenhagen in 1813, in what

became known as the Danish

Golden Age of culture. His father,

a wealthy tradesman, was both

pious and melancholic, and his

son inherited these traits, which

were to greatly influence his

philosophy. Kierkegaard studied

theology at the University of

Copenhagen, but attended

lectures in philosophy. When he

came into a sizeable inheritance,

he decided to devote his life to

philosophy. In 1837 he met and fell

in love with Regine Olsen, and

three years later they became

engaged, but Kierkegaard broke

off the engagement the following

year, saying that his melancholy

made him unsuitable for married

life. Though he never lost his

faith in God, he continually

criticized the Danish national

church for hypocrisy. In 1855 he

fell unconscious in the street,

and died just over a month later.

Key works

1843 Fear and Trembling

1843 Either/Or

1844 The Concept of Anxiety

1847 Works of Love