Citation

Klun B. Bogosl. Vestn. 2013; 73(3): 367-376.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Although Kierkegaard does not primarily link the phenomenon of despair to the problem of suicide, his systematic analysis in The Sickness Unto Death furnishes anthropological starting points for addressing the question of suicide in depth. The main cause of despair, according to Kierkegaard, is the inability of a person to fully become himself, where the measure of true self is the attitude toward eternity or to God. Though the prevailing present understanding of man does not consider the dimension of eternity and the discussion of the phenomenon of suicide is limited to the autonomy of man's freedom, Kierkegaard's existential analysis brings forth important methodological tools for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon and raises the issue regarding the exclusively secular understanding of suicide.

Language: sk

Keywords

Suicide; Despair; Kierkegaard; Immanence; Selfness; The sickness unto death; Transcendence