So¨ren Aabye Kierkegaard(1813-1855), an existentialist, thoroughly analyzed the human beings that have lead comfortable lives as a part of common system of speculative philosophy. He described the human being as an 'existence of dread' from an early ...
So¨ren Aabye Kierkegaard(1813-1855), an existentialist, thoroughly analyzed the human beings that have lead comfortable lives as a part of common system of speculative philosophy. He described the human being as an 'existence of dread' from an early age. He observed that people in the global village came to have a deep distrust of reason and severe doubt of advancement of history that have placed on the absolute position during World WarsⅠand Ⅱ. In addition, they keenly realized the inability of human beings and crisis of existence. Today, modern people remain troubled by dread, war, racial conflict, various terrors, environmental pollution, and cloning.
However, according to Kierkegaard, these external dread were not true ones but only fears. The fear has its object as emotional state, but the true dread, Kierkegaard said, was the result of the contradiction in the existence of human beings. It was very difficult to grasp its substance and overcome it. As a result, few people research these problems of dread which are profound obscurities. But, under these conditions, in the absence of 'research on dread', Kierkegaard tried to approach these problems in a decisive manner.
Kierkegaard was a Christian in Lutheran Church, the established Christianity in Denmark as well as a philosopher and theologian. His interest was to establish the true Christianity and be a true Christian at all times. Kierkegaard, who has wrestled with the consciousness of these problems, saw through the concept, 'dread', as a depth element in the human being's existence. And then, he started a full-scale research. The result of his research was The Concept of Dread. He did not look for the problems of dread in other places, but he developed his fantastic logic, connecting the concept of traditional 'original sin' based on the lapsed mythology about Adam and Eve shown in Genesis. Kierkegaard tried to interpret the dread of human beings in connection with original sin. In the meantime, he virulently criticized the traditional interpretation of original sin that was recognized as a vague and abstract mythology. First of all, he considered the original sin as a sense of guilt and explained it as psychological and anthropological method, not mythological method. His trial was to analyze the human being's common guilt rather than the interpretation of sin by Adam and Eve. In addition, he considered the mythology of Adam and Eve's Fall in the Bible as a matter which concerns every human. That is to say, transference from the state of innocence to the state of sin. Accordingly, he interpreted that human beings came to lose their innocence through the actual commitment of a sin rather than through the genetic guilt from Adam. As a result, he interpreted that every human being would never be free of dread.
What is the philosophical or religious meaning of 'dread' that Kierkegaard highlighted as a characteristic of human existence? According to him, every human came to feel dread if they were normal human beings because they were beings with mental reason. Paradoxically speaking, the deeper the dread, the greater the human being. The reason was why the dread made the human beings foothold that could make them miss the eternity and a motive of vital importance. From a practical point of view, Kierkegaard's concept of dread makes it possible for human beings to find the lost egos, and become a means of true recovery for humanity. Ultimately, this dread proves to be a way to reach for eternity. In other words, the dread became a motive that made the human beings confirm their religious faith for Jesus Christ, an Absolute Paradox. And the belief in God became a shortcut that reached to eternity. Consequently, Kierkegaard's theory of dread is the essence of the theory of religious eternity. It could supply the precious materials of moral education in view of general education or popular education. A step further from the theory of concept of dread, when it comes to reach to his other works, for example, Training in Christianity, Sickness unto Death, and Either-or, it comes to be full of suggestions like a lot of materials and methodology related to the moral education.
However, it is common sense that it has limitations and parts can be criticized, although he is a great thinker and has great thought. Even if Kierkegaard was an excellent and genius founder of existentialism, it could reveal the limitations in different terms. Although this researcher's criticism with the superficial learning might misunderstand and distort Kierkegaard's intention completely, this researcher's questions are as follows. The theory of 'concept of dread' in Kierkegaard was an approach from a psychological·an thropological point of view, but it is difficult to consider it as psychologi cal·anthropological point of view in the general meanings. On the contrary, it was better to consider as an approach to religious psychology or Biblical hermeneutics of Christianity, one of particular religions. His approach and theory did not seem to be easy to accept in the modern multi-religious society. And, he had an excellent point of view in which he highlighted 'dread' as a constituent of human existence and analyzed it systematically and profoundly. But, he could not help possessing the limitations clearly to comprehend the field of non-Christianity. Also, it was considered difficult to escape the criticism as very dogmatic opinion.