Either/Or Summary

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard challenges us to confront life's paradoxes and absurdities with reflection, passion, and even humor.

1. Loss Shapes Perspective

Kierkegaard’s early years were defined by profound loss. By the age of 25, he had lost nearly his entire immediate family, leaving him to wrestle with grief and the inevitability of death. These experiences profoundly impacted his philosophical outlook.

Through his writings, Kierkegaard viewed the comfortable middle-class Christian life of his society as a veneer that shields people from confronting deeper existential truths. He called out this avoidance and argued that recognition of mortality drives a more honest and passionate approach to life. Kierkegaard’s bleak beginnings informed his emphasis on engaging authentically with life.

His literary works served as his dialogue with the fundamental struggles of existence. The awareness of mortality fueled his continuous quest for meaning, compelling him to explore profound questions about pleasure, duty, faith, and individual choice. The prolific insights he penned during this time continue to resonate centuries later.

Examples

• Kierkegaard lost six siblings and both parents within a decade, instilling an acute awareness of death’s inevitability.
• He rejected the complacency of Copenhagen’s middle-class life and sought meaning beyond material comfort.
• His output of over 20 books, including "Either/Or," emerged from his relentless desire to grapple with life's absurdities.

2. The Aesthetic Life Prioritizes Pleasure

Kierkegaard’s "Either/Or" introduces two radically different ways to live, one being the aesthetic life, focused on individual pleasure and beauty. He portrays this lifestyle through a fictional character known as "A."

The aesthetic life celebrates passion, creativity, and sensory enjoyment. It’s about living in the moment and indulging one’s desires. However, Kierkegaard critiques this approach for its eventual emptiness. The pursuit of pleasure, divorced from responsibility or deeper reflection, leads only to despair. This despair arises when the aesthete realizes their life lacks lasting meaning.

By intellectually framing this mode of living through fictional letters, Kierkegaard invites readers to immerse themselves in its perspective. However, his portrayal doesn’t glamorize the aesthetic life. It’s more of an invitation to discern its limitations and understand why it ultimately fails to provide fulfillment.

Examples

• The character "A" exemplifies this worldview by valuing amusement and seduction while avoiding life’s heavier questions.
• Kierkegaard critiques the fleeting joy of material pursuits that cannot sustain long-term meaning.
• Through the letters, he allows readers to experience the aesthetic life without promoting it as viable.

3. The Ethical Life Seeks Responsibility

In contrast to the aesthetic mode, Kierkegaard describes the ethical life as driven by responsibility, duty, and a sense of moral purpose. He conveys this philosophy through another fictional letter-writer, Judge Vilhelm.

The ethical life requires commitment to societal values, family life, and personal integrity. By embracing responsibility, one creates meaning not through indulgence but through virtuous actions. But Kierkegaard doesn’t present this path as free of challenge. Blind conformity to external rules risks suffocating individuality, leading to an inauthentic existence.

Ultimately, Kierkegaard believed no predefined ethical structure could fulfill everyone. Rather, it is the process of questioning and shaping one's responsibilities that allows for a life of depth and purpose. He invites readers to consider how they can find meaning in balancing freedom with duty.

Examples

• Judge Vilhelm embodies the ethical life, advocating for hard work and family commitments.
• Kierkegaard challenges blind adherence to ethics by highlighting the importance of authenticity.
• He presents the ethical sphere as an antidote to fleeting pleasures but warns against rigidity.

4. Anxiety Reflects Human Freedom

Kierkegaard’s take on anxiety differs from seeing it as a negative emotion. Instead, he considers it a natural consequence of human freedom. To Kierkegaard, anxiety arises because we are responsible for shaping our lives.

The profound uncertainty tied to major decisions brings about anxiety, which he calls "the dizziness of freedom." The weight of infinite possibilities generates fear of making the wrong choice. But Kierkegaard argues that anxiety serves as a tool. When embraced, it pushes people toward authentic living.

Rather than seeking distraction, Kierkegaard believes facing anxiety head-on allows us to discover purpose. Through anxiety, we realize our potential and confront our limitations in a world that offers no certainties.

Examples

• Kierkegaard likens anxiety to dizziness caused by the boundless potential of freedom.
• Aesthetic figures distract themselves from anxiety, yet this avoidance leads to despair.
• The ethical person uses anxiety productively, navigating life’s ambiguity with intentionality.

5. Humor in Absurdity

Kierkegaard believed the absurdity of the human condition shouldn’t lead to despair but could instead be met with humor and a light heart. Laughing at life’s paradoxes, like the inevitability of suffering, gives us the freedom to move forward.

While life appears random and unpredictable, Kierkegaard’s advice is to embrace the absurd, finding joy and humor amidst the chaos. Humor becomes not an escape but a healing response to the uncertainties inherent in living.

This perspective resonates strongly in existentialism and absurdist works. Kierkegaard’s philosophy laid an early groundwork for the view that laughter can transform despair into a moment of celebration.

Examples

• Kierkegaard himself proclaimed, “The whole of existence makes me laugh."
• Later thinkers like Camus echo this sentiment, imagining Sisyphus happy despite his endless task.
• Humor becomes a pathway to resilience in the face of life’s challenges.

6. Existential Angst and Responsibility

Living authentically requires acknowledging both freedom and personal responsibility. Kierkegaard’s work emphasizes the ongoing process of choosing how to live despite life’s uncertainties.

Applying responsibility to create meaning helps individuals escape despair. By making reflective, intentional choices, individuals form identities rooted in both responsibility and passion. Kierkegaard encourages us to find a balance that blends heart and reason without succumbing to either extreme.

Examples

• Aesthetic lives avoid responsibility, while ethical lives risk rigid conformity.
• Reflection on one’s choices fosters authenticity.
• Kierkegaard advocates for the intersection of joy and moral accountability.

7. Kierkegaard and Existentialism

Kierkegaard’s ideas inspired existentialist philosophers like Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre. His focus on subjective truths and freedom set the stage for exploring human existence from a personal perspective.

While Hegel sought universal systems to explain reality, Kierkegaard rejected this idea. Instead, he viewed subjective experience as the only meaningful way to understand existence.

Examples

• Sartre expands on Kierkegaard’s “radical freedom” through his theory of existential responsibility.
• Nietzsche also builds on themes of individuality and authentic life creation.
• Kierkegaard inspired Camus to embrace absurdity as key to human joy.

8. Faith Beyond Convention

Kierkegaard saw organized Christianity as superficial. Instead, he advocated for simplicity in belief, urging people to embrace faith personally rather than conforming to tradition.

Faith for Kierkegaard meant grappling actively with doubt and uncertainty—not blind acceptance but a passionate leap into the unknown. He believed that true faith arises not from rules but from wrestling with life’s mysteries.

Examples

• Kierkegaard rejected religious orthodoxy, seeking personal faith.
• He embraced his father’s gospel lessons over institutionalized religion.
• His philosophy critiques passive, dogmatic faith devoid of passion.

9. The Endless Choice

Life’s choices present themselves as constant either/or decisions. According to Kierkegaard, there is no escaping anxiety, uncertainty, or sacrifice in these choices. Hence, we must embrace the absurdity of endless decision-making with humor and spirit.

By choosing again and again, we define ourselves. For Kierkegaard, the lack of ultimate answers challenges us to create meaning within life’s chaos. There is no final resolution, only the ongoing act of choosing.

Examples

• Kierkegaard’s “Either/Or” title reflects life’s constant crossroads.
• He emphasizes taking responsibility for unavoidable choices.
• The absurdity of choice becomes a mode of freedom for embracing life passionately.

Takeaways

1. Confront your anxieties rather than avoiding them—they can guide you to authentic living.
2. Balance personal passions with thoughtful responsibility to create a meaningful life.
3. Laugh at life’s absurdities as you pursue purpose, embracing the joy and unpredictability of existence.