With all that has been going on in the world (especially in the United States) it would be out of place for one to say that this is a “boring” time. However, as is fit with our human nature, whenever things become slow or predictable in our personal lives, it would suffice to say that they would get bored rather easily. However, according to Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) boredom is not only detrimental to the development of a person, it is the root of evil.
In his book Either/Or Kierkegaard claims that boredom is a vacuum in where a person is perpetually trapped in and yearns for a change of any kind if they wish to escape, indifferent of whether it is good or evil. According to Kierkegaard, humanity is formed into three separate branches of people who go about in eliminating boredom, as well is in living their own lives. These three people are separated into the aesthetics, the ethicists, and the religious people, each one of them having their own ways to cope with boredom and their ways in passing the time.
The aesthetics live their lives according to their desires and what they want at that given point in time, and give little concern to morals, and metaphysical behaviors (although they don’t omit them completely). These are more the “live in the moment” kind of people who are always trying to find the newest things and looking to get the most out of life. The modern day equivalent of these people would be the excessive shoppers who buy clothes, shoes, and other items on impulse with little use for them aside from claiming that they have them. According to Kierkegaard, these are the saddest kinds of people as their lives hold no inherent meaning and fill up that void with stuff that they think will help, but will only increase that void.
The second kind of people Kierkegaard talks about is the ethicists, the more rational people who take a little time in thinking about choices and decisions before implementing them. Unlike the aesthetics, the ethicists live their lives in a rational manner, often by taking no more than they need, thinking about things more in-depth, and searching for some kind, any kind of meaning their lives might hold. Ethicists may include, but are not limited to, philosophers, professors, and people who spend more time thinking than doing. Unfortunately, according to Kierkegaard, these people are also unhappy with themselves as they worry too much about possible consequences, and feel as though they are missing something in life. Which brings us to the final group of people…
Kierkegaard classifies this final group as the spiritual or religious people, the most fulfilled of the three groups. These are the kinds of people who regularly attend some kind of religious service and preserve some sort of spiritual aura around them and let themselves be a part of something bigger. The religious person has something more than the aesthetic or the ethicist could want and that is the fulfillment of agape: the love they have for God. Through this bond with God, they allow themselves to be fully accepted into holy grace without having to worry about decisions, or whether what they are doing is right.
Kierkegaard thought that in the face of God, we are always wrong and that if we want to right ourselves of our flaws and follies, we must open our hearts to God and receive His love in order for us to feel fulfilled. In comparison to other existential philosophers such as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Friedrich Nietzsche, Kierkegaard’s view is a more pleasant one as opposed to the bleak views the previous philosophers had, although it hasn’t been widely accepted as such. As an existentialist philosopher, Kierkegaard still believed that life held no point whatsoever, and that we should make as much peace as we should with God before our time is up.
However, some people would gladly relate as an aesthetic or an ethicist before they do as religious, as Kierkegaard’s lack of rationality turned away many people from his philosophy. Yet, there is something appealing in what he has to say, after all, he is one of the first philosophers to explore the concept of existentialism. Even to an atheist with no belief in a higher figure, I must say that Kierkegaard’s beliefs hold a place in philosophy, as do his three groups of people.
In the end, I do identify as an ethicist, with more questions than desire or spirituality. The only questions left to ask, dear reader, is which of the three people do you identify as, and are we truly bored with ourselves, or are we missing something?