Soren Kierkagaard on Money and Happiness

Errol, John V. Valdez

The Life of Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

(MAY 5, 1831 – NOVEMBER 11, 1855)

Soren Aabye Kierkegaard is a 19^th century Danish philosopher, born on May 5, 1831 in Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark, who imposed restrictions on his own love and emotions and declared the idea of subjectivity as truth. From the young age, he was disabled and suffered from complications after his fall from a tree when he was a boy. He was also strongly influenced by his father's depression and stubborn belief in a curse that all his children were doomed to die by the age of 33. He is recognized as the founder of Existentialism, an influential author in psychology, and an important figure in Postmodernism (Shelokhonov, n.d).

He finished his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen in 1841.  His writings revolved around organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology and the philosophy of religion. The writings contain metaphor, irony and parables (Wikimedia Foundation, 2017).

His works concentrated on issues on how to live as a single individual, giving concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. His theological work focuses on Christian ethics, the institution of the Church, the differences between purely objective proofs of Christianity, the infinite qualitative distinction between man and God, and the individual’s subjective relationship to Jesus Christ, who can through faith.  He was extremely critical of the practice of Christianity as a state religion in Denmark. His works in psychology explored on the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices (Wikimedia Foundation, 2017).

He offered no solutions to the problems in his writings but rather a variety of views on individual, social and political challenges and unresolvable complexities ranging from an “Attack on” approach to an observationist position.  His greatest work entitled “Either/Or” was written in 1842 in Berlin, Germany, was revised and completed in Copenhagen, Denmark in the fall of the same year, and published in 1843.  In this writing, he played his three incarnations, philosopher named “A”, Judge Williams, author of rebuttals to “A”, and editor, Victor Ermita.  This work of Kierkegaard found little understanding among the contemporaries (Shelokhonov, n.d).

                        His early works were written under various pseudonyms.  This is due to create an imitation of discussion between several pseudo-authors were in fact he is the only one. The use of various pseudonyms in his writings is because of his complex personality and intricate thought and reasoning, he made it difficult to distinguish between what he truly believed and what he was making up for a mere arguments.    Among his works are “The Concept of Irony” (1841), “Fear and Trembling” (1843), and “Works of Love” (1847) (Shelokhonov, n.d).

He also wrote many Upbuilding Discourses under his own name and dedicated them to the “single individual” who wants to discover the meaning of his works (Wikimedia Foundation, 2017). In his later works, he analyzed the detrimental effect of organized religion on individuals in Denmark caused by rigidity of established state church. Because of his analysis of fear, sin, guilt and other tools of control over minds, as well as his thoughts on the decay of the Danish State Church and failures of applied religion that led to his statement, “the human race has outgrown Christianity”, ignited attacks on him by many angered critics (Shelokhonov, n.d).

He died in a hospital on November 11, 1855, due to complications from his fall from a tree in his childhood, and was laid to rest in the Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark (Shelokhonov, n.d). 

Kierkegaard on Happiness

            The presented views on happiness by Soren A. Kierkegaard were from the different chapters his work entitled “Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegard,” compiled and edited by Charles E. Moore, published by The Bruderhof Foundation, Inc. in 2002. The following are the views of Kierkegaard on happiness:

1)    The key to happiness is found in the externals - to live an authentic and religious life.

“A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.”

(Kierkegaard S. , Kierkegaard Quotes, 2017)

In Kierkegaard’s “The Speheres of Existence,” found in the preliminary pages of Provocations, he argued that people who are solely concerned with their own happiness have only aesthetic life that means life lived for the moment. These people are more concerned in satisfying their natural desires and impulses physically, emotionally and intellectually.  He described these people as living for enjoyment - on the surface of life, observers, spectators, tasters, but not serious participants.  These people do not have real inner life and self to be offered to others.  Their well-being is determined by the choices or moods of others and by forces that extend beyond their control. They do not internalize in making decisions, thus when they face problems they never accept responsibility or blame.  These people are considered apathetic, indifferent, unintegrated and not committed to any one thing.  Aesthetic freedom is enslavement to the passions that leads a person to the brink of despair. Something better might always come along and so they split their energies in different directions (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

Happiness is found in the externals and can be seen when living an authentic life.  To move toward authentic personal existence is to become a Christian.  This is moving beyond the aesthetic sphere and into the ethical.  The person’s ethical life recognizes the significance of choice by accepting his duty as a moral actor.  The person regards his conscience, take responsibility and fulfill his moral obligations, and set aside his many desires or impulses and his careless freedom. Ethical freedom, as opposite to aesthetic freedom, is the enjoyment and fulfillment of doing one’s duty. A person living an authentic life tries to realize what is of eternal and universal value.  The person realizes that within the soul there is something eternal that cannot be satisfied by a sensory life.  Hence the realization of enduring values of justice, freedom, peace, love and respect for the moral law within propel the ethical self forward into a life of responsibility, caring beyond one’s immediate interests.  All of these will sum up to true freedom, the ability to fulfill one’s duty, to move from what is to what is ought to be (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

The realization of ethical values takes time and effort because it involves choice, resolution and struggles.  An authentic and fully realized individual is unified from within, his actions are one, and accepts responsibility for his commitments. The person is not swayed by his every emotion or by the opinions of others.  Effort is necessary to live in an authentic life because one must passionately choose the path.  Life is an “either/or”, not just between good and evil, but between choosing and not choosing.  The person lives intentionally and intensively and possesses the character, conviction, and willing to sacrifice for something greater than himself.  (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

A higher level of living can be obtained by an individual by living a religious life. This is nothing to do with institutional religion per se but rather the individual lives religiously and the ethical or authentic life is not sufficient to provide solutions for life’s riddles and choices.  Ethical or authentic life fails to adequately deal with exceptional situations because doing one’s duty is not always simple, especially when different duties conflict or obligations are not totally fulfilled.  To Kierkegaard, the “Absolute” is something higher than the universal duty. A fully actualized person has to see himself before God to see himself as he really is.  If this happens, the wide gap between oneself and God becomes clearer because of the sins that has been committed and the failure to fulfill completely the moral duty. If an ethical or authentic individual is truly honest with himself, he lives in constant fear and dread precisely because of his inability to fulfill the moral law and hesitate to give himself absolutely. The most ethical person is precisely the one who feels most inadequate.  Because people existed from the image of God, each person instinctively knows that God is higher than the moral law and greater than any set of values.  People’s highest commitment to make is to God, the very ground of every moral value.  God’s will is finally what matters.  People must ultimately surrender to God in a leap of faith because no one can measure the demands of God (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

When an individual stands before God and no longer sees himself as self-sufficient, he recognizes his own inability to transform himself.  The religious person strives to allow himself to be transformed by God.  The transformation includes three things:

a)    Infinite resignation – dying to the world, the willingness to sacrifice any finite good for the sake of God;

b)    Suffering – undergoing a transformation of the self, though not by self.  It is the process of undergoing “self-annihilation” so that God can do this transforming work; and

c)    Guilt – the feeling of one’s inability to give oneself completely and unreservedly to God.

The religious person, although committed to many ethical ideals as the ethical or authentic person, believes that the ideals are ultimately incapable of fulfillment because of his own inner conditions, not external barriers.  The person recognizes his sinful state.  The person in faith relates himself in repentance and he knows that his chosen ideals are insufficient and incomplete.  The religious person believes that the key to finding God is to recognize and realize his own guilt and need, and that recognized that there is an abyss between him and God, an infinite qualitative difference between man and God.  The true awareness of sin comes from the revelation of God to the individual.  Sin’s corruption is total and one’s ability to choose is itself a gift.  The highest passion of inwardness comes in revelation by God and is received by faith. As Kierkegaard said, “An ethic which ignores sin is an absolutely idle science.” Thus, allowing oneself transformed by God is more important tan fulfilling one’s duty (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

2)    Happiness is immeasurable that is promised to the one who rightly chooses – to be unconditionally obedient.

“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both.”
(Kierkegaard S. , Kierkegaard Quotes, 2017)

                In Kierkegaard’s “Either/Or,” Chapter 2 of the Provocations, to choose rightly is an ultimate blessing and certainly true but the faculty of choice is still a pre-requisite.  The heart is involved in choosing.  To him, a choice that is not used is worse than nothing that will place people trapped as a slave that is not free – by choosing.  People can never get rid of choosing because it remains with them and if not used then it will become a curse.  Choosing is the choice between God and the world.  God’s overwhelming and humbling expression for his condescension and extravagance towards human beings is placing himself on the same level of choice with the world, thus giving people an opportunity to be able to choose, not only can choose but rather must choose. Each person must choose between God and the world. A person must choose because for this way God retains his honor and his fatherly concern for humankind.  Though God has lowered himself to being that can be chosen, yet each person partly chosen Him.  If a person avoids choosing, the presumption is that the person is choosing the world (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

            People are contended in the colossal point of contention, whether to love or to hate.  The love of God is hatred of the world and the love of the world is hatred of God. A terrible fight in the innermost being.  This struggle is a matter of loving and preferring God – the struggle for the highest.  People who do not understand are unwilling to accept the presence of God in the moment of choice, not in order to watch but in order to be chosen.  Each person must choose and the risk lies in the possession of choice (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

            The either/or that God demands from people is the value of unconditional obedience. It is assumed that if the person is not obedient in everything unconditionally, without qualification, he does not love God, thus he hates God.  By not being obedient, the person is not bound to God, thus he despise Him. If a person is absolutely obedient then there is no ambiguity or uncertainty in him and he will become undivided and being single before God.  The presence of ambiguity means the presence of temptation that is enticing that leads to disobedience that will prey the human soul.  A person who surrenders to God, with no reservations, is absolutely safe from being a prey (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

            People are in danger, placed between two tremendous powers that left them to choose. They must either love or hate, and not to love means to hate.  These two tremendous powers that left people to choose are so hostile that the slightest inclination towards one side means absolute opposition of the other side. People must not forget these two tremendous powers where they exists because to forget is a choice (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

3)    Greatest happiness can be changed into greatest torment.

“Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all.”

(Kierkegaard S. , Kierkegaard Quotes, 2017)

                In Kierkegaard’s “When Love is Secure,” Chapter 33 of the Provocations, he viewed greatest happiness can change into greatest torment when it is a duty to love. If love is a duty of a person then love becomes eternally secured, secured from ravages of change, eternally and happily secured against despair. Love that is joyous, happy, indescribably confident, instinctive and inclinational, spontaneous and emotional needs to be established securely by the strength of duty.  Despite of its security, anxiety still resides, a force that drives the possibility of change. Spontaneous and emotional love can be changed to its opposite, to hate or it can become jealousy. The heat of spontaneous love is dangerous, no matter how great its passion, it can very quickly become a poisonous fever (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

            Human love that produce happiness can lose its zeal, joy, desire, originative power and its living freshness due to indifference of habit. Habit cannot be seen that forced people to strive and defend themselves but it resides within them that force them to struggle.  The person is not aware of the occurrence of his habit until it will become noticeable that changed human-inspired love.  When people become aware of the habit that changed their love, they make up for it but do not exactly know how.  This makes people become liable to despair and to become weary.  Genuine love that is transformed and sustained by the eternal will never become characterized by habit (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

4)   Happiness comes with the fulfillment of wishes and changes in external circumstances.

“People settle for a level of despair they can tolerate and call it happiness.”

“Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair.”

(Kierkegaard S. , Happiness, 2017)

            In Kierkegaard’s “The Dynamics of Despair,” Chapter 37 of the Provocation, he argued that people has the tendency to feel that they are in despair even if they are not.  Because of this attitude of people, their negativity will actually push them not to achieve what they really want and this will lead them to feel that they are in despair.  While they are in the state of despair, they will again do actions, whether by himself or from a help outside him, to go out from that circumstance and fulfill their wishes, desires and wants.  To Kierkegaard, in this situation happiness is restored to the people. (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

5)   Happiness is eternal and related with passion.

In the “Existence and the Existential,” Chapter 69 of the Provocation, Kierkegaard regarded happiness as eternal, that could mean God.  He argued that an existing person should relate himself with passion to God to transform his existence that could lead to happiness.  To Kierkegaard, if a person will not absolutely transform by the eternal then the person does not relate himself to God (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

6)   Happiness is obtained through obedience.

In “Obedience,” Chapter 81 of the Provocation, Kierkegaard argued that happiness is only obtained through obedience.  Despite that man is the master of his destiny and has the ability to understand himself and seek to satisfied himself, if without obedience to follow the eternal, who is God, eternal happiness cannot be attained by people (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

Soren AABYE Kierkegaard on MONEY

The presented views on money by Soren A. Kierkegaard were from the different chapters his work entitled “Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegard,” compiled and edited by Charles E. Moore, published by The Bruderhof Foundation, Inc. in 2002. The following are the views of Kierkegaard on money:

1)   Money is sought  first by man before virtue

In Kierkegaard’s “First the Kingdom of God,” Chapter 54 of the Provocation, he argued that people tend to seek first money to fulfill and satisfy their desires then virtue.  To Kierkegaard, people seek first earthly things and seeking the kingdom of God is the last thing that people will do.  People do not feel the need to go further than fulfilling their earthly desires (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

2)     Man is running after money, status and pleasure.

In Chapter 77 of the Provocations entitled “The Human Condition,” it was argued by Kierkegaard that man runs after money, status, and pleasure.  This view of Kierkegaard is obvious that people gives more importance to the money that they will receive and get, status that they will achieve and pleasures that they will feel by fulfilling their desires.  To him this race is outside the real racetrack to attain eternal happiness since people tends to give last priority on the virtue or seeking the kingdom of God. Fulfilling their desires by seeking money provides them only status and pleasure but not eternal happiness (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

3)       Making money could provide strength to people.

In “Preaching and Proclamation,” Chapter 85 of the Provocations, Kierkegaard argued that people can acquire new strength by making money.  People who are seeking money will be able to gain strength to put out themselves from poverty that possess the highest degree of uncomfortableness and fear.  People are strengthened by comfortable life through seeking money which Kierkegaard described as “fat living.”  When people achieve their desires, they will seek for a more comfortable life which again Kierkegaard described as “fatter one.” This tendencies of people show that no contentment is being achieved that place them to race outside the real racetrack for the eternal (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

4)   Money will make people into somebody.

In Kierkegaard’s “Worship,” Chapter 98 of the Provocations, he argued that when people will be able to fulfil their desires through accumulation of money.  People will tend to become somebody by acquiring earthly things that satisfy their desires.  People seek things that will lead them to success.  By achieving all these earthly desires, people tend to equate them as proof of God’s grace.  The proof that God’s grace is lacking to people is that they suffer and have torments, they feel grief and in troubles (Kierkegaard S. , Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, 2002).

CONCLUSION:

            Happiness and money are two great forces that are parts of our everyday life as human beings. We have our own behaviors, hopes, desires, needs, passions, and thoughts that lead us to feel happiness, freedom and love.  Combining all of these aspects of our life we will undergo three different stages in our lives. The lives that Kierkegaard described as: aesthetic, authentic and religious.

            In our aesthetic stage, all of us seek pleasures by fulfilling our needs and desires to push us out in the state of pain or despair. In this life we enjoy earthly things that are provided to us through natural processes or man-made things.  We just say is by simply enjoying the pleasure that the world is providing us in our everyday life.  Reality is many of us equate that pleasure to merely happiness but to Kierkegaard pleasure is earthly while happiness is eternal. We tend to shorten our horizons in looking into the deeper meaning of pleasure and happiness. Once we will be able to learn to stretch and widen and go deeper into the meaning of happiness then this will lead us to the next stage of our lives: the authentic life that sometimes called as ethical life.

            The authentic life is the stage when we do not just feel pleasure but the life where we already have the willingness to make hard decisions on how we want to live in this world.  Not like in the aesthetic stage where in we do not have commitments and our options have no differences, the authentic life leads us to become aware of the two forces that confronts us: what is acceptable (the good) and what is not acceptable (the evil).  This means that our options will make us realize and think of a meaningful choice that we need to select. By the option we choose will now make us different from each other, will now separate our lives to authentic stage.  The option that we pick will shape us into someone and something else. We should keep in our minds that in this stage of our lives we are motivated by the options we make, options that are dictated by love, mutual respect, and concern for other people and to nature.  

As Kierkegaard (2015) stated in is Knight of Faith, happiness is not mere pleasure. Happiness that is dependent upon wealth or luck, upon beauty, or money, or youthfulness is not real happiness because if one of these changes, our happiness dissolves.  Happiness should be eternal, never-ending.

            When we will be able to understand that happiness is eternal then we should know how to live a religious life. We can achieve this stage if we become a true believer of Christ and willing to leave everything and accept the consequences of the calling of our Christ.  This is the hardest stage that only a few people can grasp and live with it. In this stage of life, people must leave anger and vengeance, security and well-being, the approval of society and the vanity of achievement. This means that we must follow Christ, and Christ’s love, no matter where they lead (Kierkegaard S. A., 2015).

            The achievement of the last stage will lead us to eternal happiness. Happiness that our Lord promised us. A life full of happiness wherein sufferings, torments and despair have no traces and have to chance to appear.

            Money is an earthly material things that many of us run after into. If we ask each other if money is a need, there if a great tendency that we will answer in the affirmative.  This is because we are bound greatly with our aesthetic lives.  As much as possible we do not want to suffer from despair and pain and we look into it that money can help us get out of that life circumstance.  We do not want to hunger to weaken us, thus we need money not to feel hungry.  We do not want illnesses strike us, thus we need money to prevent its occurrence in our body.  There are times that money determines our relationships to other people. The more money a person has the more friends he has.  But once a person live in a life with scarcity of money, it is too hard to gain friends.

            Money gave us opportunities to forget the eternal, our Lord God, who is the ultimate provider that all of us need. Even without asking it He will provide us because He knows what are really needed by us.  The Lord can provide us the real happiness that we are looking for that money cannot buy and give.  The feelings that we have when our desires and needs are fulfilled by the money that we have is not really happiness but merely pleasure. Once this pleasure will pass out we placed in despair and again look for something that will satisfy out desires that will gain provide us pleasure. This is a never-ending cycle of life if we do not know how to determine the real racetrack to eternal happiness.

            We should always remember that as we continue our journey in life, money cannot provide happiness but only earthly pleasures by fulfilling our earthly desires. By continued walking through the path of our lives we should learn to live a religious life by observing obedience to what our God wants us to do.  And we able to attain this last and very hard stage of our lives, we will have an assurance that when our time will come we will live in the bosom of our Lord with eternal happiness.

REFERENCES

Kierkegaard, S. (2002). Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard. (C. E. Moore, Editor) Retrieved March 4, 2017, from Holybooks.com: http://holybooks.lichtenbergpress.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/Provocations.pdf

Kierkegaard, S. (2017). Happiness. Retrieved March 8, 2017, from Goodreads, Inc: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=happiness+kierkegaard&commit=Search

Kierkegaard, S. (2017). Kierkegaard Quotes. Retrieved March 5, 2017, from SearchQuotes.com: http://www.searchquotes.com/search/Kierkegaard/

Kierkegaard, S. A. (2015, August 30). Knight of Faith. (R. G. Haller, Editor) Retrieved March 6, 2017, from fumcbirmingham: http://fumcbirmingham.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Surrounded-Knight-of-Faith-Soren-Kierkegaard.pdf

Shelokhonov, S. (n.d). Soren Kierkegaard: Biography. Retrieved March 4, 2017, from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0452567/bio

Wikimedia Foundation. (2017, February 23). Soren Kierkegaard. Retrieved March 4, 2017, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soren_Kierkegaard