Kierkegaard and the Sheer Phenomenon of Love

Abstract

AbstractIn this article we will argue that Kierkegaard has a positive view of love as a sheer natural and universal phenomenon. This sheer phenomenon of love is rooted in God’s love and is implanted in human nature by its Creator. Therefore this natural urge to love, that manifests itself both as a lack and a surplus, should not be juxtaposed to Christian neighbor love. For Kierkegaard there is one love, but this one love, hidden in the ground in every person, puts on different shapes and lets itself be known through these different forms. In this article we are interested in the dreaming and searching desire as described in “The Immediate Erotic Stages or The Musical-Erotic” in the first part of Either/Or, as these first and unconscious forms of love are the presupposition for falling in love, another form of love that is investigated in the article. We will argue the original form of love is preferential love, but that neighbor love, as a non-preferential type of love, springs from the same love that is given by God and hidden in every person.