Skip to main content

Leap of Faith



A friend sent me the other day two articles on Soren Kierkegaard which reminded me of the bicentenary of the Danish philosopher’s birth.  Philosophers, probably, belong to a species that’s becoming extinct.  Nevertheless, it’s worthwhile, if not necessary, to take a glance at some of the old philosophies. 

Kierkegaard’s most famous phrase is “leap into faith.”  The philosopher argued that there is a profound insecurity in human life.  Life is one contingency after another.  The only certainty is death.  The other certainties or truths have to be created by each one of us as we move through life. What is required in the process is the willingness to risk a leap of faith. 

Becoming human is a project, argued Kierkegaard.  Our task is not so much to discover who we are but to create ourselves at every moment. 

Kierkegaard identified 3 stages of life experience.

1.       The aesthetic: This is the stage at which we search for fulfilment in activities such as romance, career building and pleasure-seeking.  This is, however, not ultimately satisfying.  It eventually leads to boredom.
2.       The ethical: This is a remedy for the aesthetic despair. This is a commitment to some arbitrary absolute.  For example, when Mahatma Gandhi committed himself to non-violence, he was choosing this remedy. Similarly Mother Teresa chose compassion.
3.       The religious: Kierkegaard thought that man could find his final contentment only in God.  Kierkegaard would have agreed with Augustine of Hippo that “our hearts are restless until they rest in (God).”

But Kierkegaard’s God would not have been a simplistic god provided by some organised religion.  The philosopher was of the view that most worthwhile truths are subjective rather than objective. There are plenty of objective truths in the world like water boils at 100 degree Celsius under normal conditions, etc.  In human life, however, subjective truths assume a greater significance.  “Truth is subjectivity,” Kierkegaard dared to assert.  “Unless one believes something subjectively and passionately he does not possess the truth,” Norman Geisler and Paul Feinberg paraphrased Kierkegaard. 

This subjective truth is found in the concrete, not in the abstract; in the existential, not in the rational.  One places oneself in that truth, even as Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa did, by a leap of faith.  This truth is not arrived at logically but chosen by the individual’s will.

I think Kierkegaard’s philosophy deserves attention in a world where people are encouraged, if not forced, to be satisfied with superficial delights and contentment.  People refuse to go beyond what Kierkegaard labelled the aesthetic stage.  Our civilisation encourages us to stick like barnacles to the rock of superficiality. Kierkegaard invites us to leap out of that superficiality and commit ourselves to some higher, more profound truth. 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 13, 2013 at 9:31 AM

    while we have the ability to think but being a specie of animal we also have the basic nature of following our herd.
    thoughtful article !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 13, 2013 at 9:36 AM

      Yeah, but how much should we follow the herd - that's the question.

      Delete
  2. UnknownMay 13, 2013 at 9:52 AM

    For the 3rd stage of life, however, one has to believe in God. What if the person doesn't believe in God but it rather believes in Karma? Now that too is abstract because what is right for one person may not be right for another person. So how does the third stage pan out for the person stuck in the second stage? I am asking this because I have been wondering about this since long.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 13, 2013 at 5:55 PM

      God is also a choice, Pankti. I describe myself as an agnostic. For all practical purposes, like most agnostics, I am an atheist. In fact, I'm almost an atheist except that I leave the question open to possibilities for the sake of a personal satisfaction.

      Isn't Karma a similar intellectual concept? I'm sure Kierkegaard would have no problems with that concept. It's a choice made by an individual's will...

      Delete
  3. KISLAYA GOPALMay 13, 2013 at 11:53 AM

    Yes the ultimate truth is Self realisation which is the third stage. But very few have achieved it and its rather difficult to achieve as we all are lost in material world and wants. Nvertheless we all must try!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 13, 2013 at 5:56 PM

      Exactly, Kislaya. It's about self-realisation. In fact, Kierkegaard finds ample mention in psychology too while discussing self-actualisation.

      Delete
  4. Richa SinghMay 13, 2013 at 4:03 PM

    Philosophies of Kierkegaard have known to influence many and I believe one of the most amazing documentation of these have been in a book called Sidhartha by Herman Hesse. The beauty of man creating his own life and not believing in fatalism (like most hindus) is very beautifully depicted in the book. If you have not read it I would suggest you do. You would love it.

    As for your article its the very that you can understand his philosophies and present them out for us so simply shows your own depth and understanding of life.

    A lovely refreshing read which of course reminded most of us that life after all is ours and ours to lose or gain only :)

    www.subzeroricha.blogspot.in

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 13, 2013 at 5:58 PM

      I was an admirer of Hesse for a long time. I read Siddhartha many times and had a personal copy. I enjoyed Hesse's other novels too, especially Narcissus and Goldmund.

      Thanks for the appreciation. I describe myself as a learner, not a teacher. That's why, I think, I am able to present hard things in a simple way. But some scholars may accuse me of over-simplifying...

      Delete
    2. Richa SinghMay 13, 2013 at 10:16 PM

      believe me many would agree the art of writing is simplifying it. Complicating comes natural to most. Whenever I write my number motive is to simply what I want to express and at times that is what takes more time.... inspired by you I am planning to write something on fatalism will keep you posted :)

      Delete
  5. The MukhtiarsMay 13, 2013 at 5:26 PM

    nice read

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 13, 2013 at 5:59 PM

      Thank you so much. You are always there with a word of encouragement.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...
39 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
16 comments
Read more

Bharata: The Ascetic King

Bharata is disillusioned yet again. His brother, Rama the ideal man, Maryada Purushottam , is making yet another grotesque demand. Sita Devi has to prove her purity now, years after the Agni Pariksha she arranged for herself long ago in Lanka itself. Now, when she has been living for years far away from Rama with her two sons Luva and Kusha in the paternal care of no less a saint than Valmiki himself! What has happened to Rama? Bharata sits on the bank of the Sarayu with tears welling up in his eyes. Give me an answer, Sarayu, he said. Sarayu accepted Bharata’s tears too. She was used to absorbing tears. How many times has Rama come and sat upon this very same bank and wept too? Life is sorrow, Sarayu muttered to Bharata. Even if you are royal descendants of divinity itself. Rama had brought the children Luva and Kusha to Ayodhya on the day of the Ashvamedha Yagna which he was conducting in order to reaffirm his sovereignty and legitimacy over his kingdom. He didn’t know they w...
30 comments
Read more

Liberated

Fiction - parable Vijay was familiar enough with soil and the stones it turns up to realise that he had struck something rare.   It was a tiny stone, a pitch black speck not larger than the tip of his little finger. It turned up from the intestine of the earth while Vijay was digging a pit for the biogas plant. Anand, the scientist from the village, got the stone analysed in his lab and assured, “It is a rare object.   A compound of carbonic acid and magnesium.” Anand and his fellow scientists believed that it must be a fragment of a meteoroid that hit the earth millions of years ago.   “Very rare indeed,” concluded the scientist. Now, it’s plain commonsense that something that’s very rare indeed must be very valuable too. All the more so if it came from the heavens. So Vijay got the village goldsmith to set it on a gold ring.   Vijay wore the ring proudly on his ring finger. Nobody, in the village, however bothered to pay any homage to Vijay’s...
47 comments
Read more

Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan , which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state. First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end. True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burnin...
9 comments
Read more