The Concept of Dread
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Begrebet Angest (The Concept of Dread or The Concept of Anxiety depending upon the translation) was a philosophical work written by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in 1844.
For Kierkegaard (or his pseudonymous author, Vigilius Haufniensis), dread or anxiety/angst (depending on the translation and context) is unfocused fear. Haufniensis uses the example of a man standing on the edge of a tall building or cliff. When the man looks over the edge, he experiences a focused fear of falling, but at the same time, the man feels a terrifying impulse to throw himself intentionally off the edge. That experience is dread or anxiety because of our complete freedom to choose to either throw oneself off or to stay put. The mere fact that one has the possibility and freedom to do something, even the most terrifying of possibilities, triggers immense feelings of dread. Haufniensis called this our "dizziness of freedom."
In The Concept of Dread, Haufniensis focuses on the first dread experienced by man: Adam's choice to eat from God's forbidden tree of knowledge or not. Since the concepts of good and evil did not come into existence before Adam ate the fruit, which is now dubbed original sin, Adam had no concept of good and evil, and did not know that eating from the tree was "evil". What he did know was that God told him not to eat from the tree. The dread comes from the fact that God's prohibition itself implies that Adam is free and that he could choose to obey God or not. After Adam ate from the tree, sin was born. So, according to Kierkegaard, dread precedes sin, and it is dread that leads Adam to sin. Haufniensis mentions that dread is the presupposition for hereditary sin.
However, Haufniensis mentions that dread is a way for humanity to be saved as well. Anxiety informs us of our choices, our self-awareness and personal responsibility, and brings us from a state of un-self-conscious immediacy to self-conscious reflection. (Jean-Paul Sartre calls these terms pre-reflexive consciousness and reflexive consciousness.) An individual becomes truly aware of their potential through the experience of dread. So, dread may be a possibility for sin, but dread can also be a recognition or realization of one's true identity and freedoms.
[edit] Quote
- "No Grand Inquisitor has in readiness such terrible tortures as has anxiety." - Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Dread
- "Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate." - Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Dread
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