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Single Idea 22096

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 3. Angst ]

Full Idea

For Kierkegaard anxiety is not simply a mood or an emotion that certain people experience at certain times, but a basic response to freedom that is part of the human condition.

Gist of Idea

Anxiety is not a passing mood, but a response to human freedom

Source

report of Søren Kierkegaard (The Concept of Dread (/Anxiety) [1844]) by Clare Carlisle - Kierkegaard: a guide for the perplexed 5

Book Ref

Carlisle,Clare: 'Kierkegaard: guide for the perplexed' [Continuum 2006], p.97


A Reaction

Outside of Christianity, this may be Kierkegaard's most influential idea - since existential individualism is floating around in the romantic movement. But the Byronic hero experiences a sort of anxiety. If you can't face anxiety, become a monk or nun.


The 18 ideas with the same theme [life permeated by insecurities and meaninglessness]:

If man considers himself as lost and imprisoned in the universe, he will be terrified [Pascal]
Irony is the response to conflicts of involvement and attachment [Schlegel,F, by Pinkard]
Anxiety is not a passing mood, but a response to human freedom [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
The ultimate in life is learning to be anxious in the right way [Kierkegaard]
Ultimate knowledge is being anxious in the right way [Kierkegaard]
Anxiety is staring into the yawning abyss of freedom [Kierkegaard]
The freedom of the subject means the collapse of moral certainty [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
The thought of suicide is a great reassurance on bad nights [Nietzsche]
Anxiety about death frees me to live my own life [Heidegger, by Wrathall]
Anxiety is the uncanniness felt when constantly fleeing from asserting one's own freedom [Heidegger, by Caputo]
Anxiety reveals the possibility and individuality of Dasein [Heidegger]
Fear concerns the world, but 'anguish' comes from confronting my self [Sartre]
Unlike other creatures, mankind seems lost in nature [Cioran]
We can only live because our imagination and memory are poor [Cioran]
Life is now more dreaded than death [Cioran]
In anxiety people cling to what reinforces it, because it is a deep need [Cioran]
If existence is absurd it can never have a meaning [Beauvoir]
Anxiety, nausea, guilt and absurdity shake us up, revealing our freedom and limits [Aho]