Søren Kierkegaard’s Anthropology

Abstract

In her article “Søren Kierkegaard’s Anthropology”, Velga Vēvere first focuses on Kierkegaard’s views on communication, which is the most essential part of human existence. The philosopher writes about the three distinctions between direct and indirect communication in relation to the four basic elements of communication: the object of communication, the communicator, the receiver of information and the communication process itself. Since objective knowledge does not depend on personal characteristics, ethical positions or religious beliefs of the people involved, it is significant that the relationship between the communicator and the receiver is only possible in an indirect form. So, Kierkegaard asks what it means to be human. What does it mean to be human in a certain existential situation? Is an authentic self at all possible? Can the existent individual be aware of their authenticity? His focus is on the subjectively existent individual, whose goal is self-understanding and the emergence of an authentic self. Kierkegaard speaks of the three stages of life: the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious. One of the basic postulates of Kierkegaard’s anthropology is that human identity is a synthesis of different elements: actuality, freedom and possibility. Category of existence is central to the discourse of Kierkegaard’s anthropology. The concept of existence and its variations appear in more than 20 of Kierkegaard’s works in different contexts and in different variations (in relation to being and its becoming, communication, stages of existence). Velga Vēvere points out that in Danish two terms are used, namely existence and actuality – a special kind of being in the world. This dual use of the term reflects Kirkegaard’s understanding of existence. An individual’s existence is their existential status, which does not depend on their desire or activity. However, for Kierkegaard, it is the understanding of existence as an actuality that presupposes participation (activity) of an individual that is more significant. Passivity or activity, indulgence or action, static state or becoming are indicators that allow us to distinguish between the two understandings of existence. To exist usually means only that by entering into existence the individual is in it and simultaneously is in the process of becoming. The Danish thinker takes up a special place in the anthropological discourse of the 19th century with his distinction between philosophical and theological anthropology; his philosophical approach is concerned with human experience and conscious action, while the theological view is based on the idea of revelation. Kierkegaard formulates his ethically religious imperative by saying that love of the other presupposes that society is a collection of independent individuals as opposed to a crowd or impersonal public. / Velga Vēvere rakstā “Sērena Kirkegora antropoloģija” vispirms pievēršas Kirkegora uzskatiem par komunikāciju, kas ir cilvēka eksistences būtiskākā sastāvdaļa. Ko nozīmē būt cilvēkam? Ko nozīmē būt cilvēkam noteiktā eksistenciālā situācijā? Vai iespējama autentiska patība? Vai eksistējošais indivīds var apzināties savu autentiskumu? Viens no Kirkegora antropoloģijas pamatpostulātiem ir tas, ka cilvēka patība ir dažādu elementu sintēze: aktualitātes, brīvības un iespējamības. Atslēgvārdi: Eksistence; antropoloģiskā sintēze; komunikācija; radikālais individuālisms; S. Kirkegors.