Blythe McGregor
September 19, 2017
Kierkegaard/Nietzsche Exam
1. Kierkegaard gives several examples and variations on despair in Sickness Unto Death. All of these variations describe despair as a state in which one is failing to be the best human that one can be. They are falling short of their full potential. This full potential, according to Kierkegaard, can only be achieved if one establishes a relationship between the self and God. For this reason, only spiritual beings, humans not animals, experience despair. Animals are not able to relate themselves to God, so are not able to experience despair and eventually rid themselves of it. In this way, humans are superior to animals. Kierkegaard discusses many variations on despair in this work. One form of despair is “not to will to be …show more content…
The noble and the herd have a strained relationship. The herd is unhappy because the noble has more power and status than they do. This causes some cognitive dissonance for the herd that they wish to resolve. They want to find a way to make themselves superior to those ruling them. This leads to rebellion among the plebes. They band together in an attempt to overthrow the morals being determined by the nobles. This is most often done through the creation of organized religion. The herd wants a way to feel as though they control the origin of their moral system. They created religion, Christianity for example, as a means of turning up their noses at the noble. They wanted to show that the high-minded were not their bosses (God is, Buddha is, etc.). These attempts at rebellion do not faze the noble. They are confident in their power and status. They see the herd for what they really are: commoners who do not know better. Insults from the herd are soon forgotten. The noble accept the dichotomy that exists in society and continue to lead in the way they always have. In fact, when the noble compare themselves to the plebes, their obvious superiority affirms their feeling of
September 19, 2017
Kierkegaard/Nietzsche Exam
1. Kierkegaard gives several examples and variations on despair in Sickness Unto Death. All of these variations describe despair as a state in which one is failing to be the best human that one can be. They are falling short of their full potential. This full potential, according to Kierkegaard, can only be achieved if one establishes a relationship between the self and God. For this reason, only spiritual beings, humans not animals, experience despair. Animals are not able to relate themselves to God, so are not able to experience despair and eventually rid themselves of it. In this way, humans are superior to animals. Kierkegaard discusses many variations on despair in this work. One form of despair is “not to will to be …show more content…
The noble and the herd have a strained relationship. The herd is unhappy because the noble has more power and status than they do. This causes some cognitive dissonance for the herd that they wish to resolve. They want to find a way to make themselves superior to those ruling them. This leads to rebellion among the plebes. They band together in an attempt to overthrow the morals being determined by the nobles. This is most often done through the creation of organized religion. The herd wants a way to feel as though they control the origin of their moral system. They created religion, Christianity for example, as a means of turning up their noses at the noble. They wanted to show that the high-minded were not their bosses (God is, Buddha is, etc.). These attempts at rebellion do not faze the noble. They are confident in their power and status. They see the herd for what they really are: commoners who do not know better. Insults from the herd are soon forgotten. The noble accept the dichotomy that exists in society and continue to lead in the way they always have. In fact, when the noble compare themselves to the plebes, their obvious superiority affirms their feeling of