Man is a Synthesis, but a Self
Kierkegaard considers the widely held assumption that man is a spirit and spirit is a self, but then goes to ask the pointed question: what is a self? His answer is confusing in a typically philosophical way, but not particularly abstruse:
“Man is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, of the temporal and the eternal, of freedom and necessity, in short it is a synthesis. A synthesis is a relation between two factors. So regarded, man is not yet a self.”
What is Sin?
Through metaphor, the philosophy gives a rather unique definition for what comprises sin. At its heart, the answer is despair, but of course it is must be more complicated than that:
“sin is potentiated weakness or potentiated defiance: sin is the potentiation of despair.”
The Sickness
The author makes special note at the end of the Preface to repeat a fact which he considers superfluous in view of the title he has given his tome. Make it known, he urges, that across and throughout the length of the book, one tenet stands superior above all else:
“despair is conceived as the sickness, not as the cure.”
The Death
The sickness has been identified and defined. But what of death? Kierkegaard does provide an example and definition through metaphor, but it is limited in scope:
“In Christian terminology death is the expression for the greatest spiritual sickness, and the cure is simply to die, to `die from’ despair.”
The Defeat of Despair
The philosopher makes the case that despair is by definition a self-consuming act, but paradoxically a powerless one because it lacks the capacity to carry through on what it wills. This state of affairs is:
“the hot incitement, or the cold fire in despair, the gnawing canker whose movement is constantly inward, deeper and deeper, in impotent self-consumption.”
