The moral implications of Kierkegaard's analysis of despair

Sharon Krishek

doi:10.1017/S0034412514000511

The moral implications of Kierkegaard's analysis of despair

Sharon Krishek^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death famously characterizes despair as the sickness of any human being who does not live a life of faith. Kierkegaard supports this claim by providing a detailed analysis of despair in the first part of this essay. This analysis, I claim, presents the thesis that to be healed of despair is not only to maintain a correct relation to God but also to the world and, moreover, that the two relations are interdependent. Thus, in contrast to prominent readings of this essay, I claim that Kierkegaard's analysis of despair bears the important moral implication that a believer's relationship with other humans is indispensable to a life of faith.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	25-43
Number of pages	19
Journal	Religious Studies
Volume	52
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412514000511
State	Published - 1 Mar 2016

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014.

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The moral implications of Kierkegaard's analysis of despair

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