Philosophy Vibe: 'hello and welcome to philosophy vibe the channel where we discuss and debate different philosophical ideas today we're going to look into the works of Soren Kierkegaard and his idea on the three stages of life gray now Kierkegaard often regarded as the father of existentialism claimed that in order for one to develop into their true self they must pass through the three stages of life these stages were the aesthetic the ethical and finally their religious once an individual has passed through these stages they have become complete they are true and they are aware interesting so what exactly is involved in each stage okay starting with aesthetic we understand aesthetics to be concerned with art and beauty but Kierkegaard characterized the aesthetic stage has been solely focused on sense experience the aesthetic stage for the individual is immersing themselves in pleasure it is a type of hidden ism looking for anything that will cure one's boredom to bring excitement and delight into their lives but at the same time it is self-serving it is devoid of any deeper meaning in the athletic stage the individual only cares about themselves and maximizing their sensory pleasure it does not acknowledge a community and their role in something larger than themselves all individuals must go through the aesthetic stage but you should never remain in this stage indefinitely life is greater than hedonistic pleasures and an individual needs to be concerned with more than just themselves right so one must then move on to stage two the ethical what's involved in stage two this is where the individual sees themselves as part of something bigger than themselves the individual will start to see themselves as part of a community and start understanding the social norms it's called the ethical because in stage two an individual becomes aware of good and evil they develop personal responsibility as well as a commitment and responsibility to others this can be characterized as having a spouse or children coworkers people who rely on you in stage two you have risen above a concern of just yourself and your pleasures but you are now part of a bigger community and there are bigger principles and social norms that you are now submitting to your motivations are more than your sensory desires and appetites the ethical makes one's life bigger and more meaningful okay and then what's the third stage so the third and final stage to becoming your true self is the religious stage ultimately this is understanding that we are all a small part in the infinite creation of God and the religious stage is to develop complete and utter faith in the existence of God once an individual has found this faith they have reached the third stage religion is therefore the highest stage in human existence so what religion is Kierkegaard advocating for I'm assuming Christianity given the time period in the country he was born in yes but not exactly for Kika God religion was the awareness of a metaphysical power in the universe this power is transcendent but the religion is actually quite personal what do you mean by personal well firstly one must understand that the faith they have in this power transcends this world and everything in it this is even greater than the ethics one has developed in stage two to make sense of this Kierkegaard uses the biblical example of Abraham Abraham was commanded by God to kill his son Isaac an act that is completely against all his ethics and all social norms yet Abraham was prepared to do this because of his faith he understood that what God wants transcends everything we understand and we must have this complete faith in God but more importantly we need to understand here God's command to Abraham was not a law that would apply to all it addressed Abraham as an individual with an individual command I see so this religious faith needs to be on a personal basis Kika God claim that the Christian faith is not just regurgitating church dogma this was for what Kierkegaard referred to as the crowd the usual way of seeing the world and seen religion with laws and rules that were universal kierkegaard actually said the crowd is untruth so the third stage is a matter of individual subjective passion something that cannot be offered by the church nor by scientific empirical facts right Kierkegaard asks us to take a leap of faith in God he actually refers to this as the absurd because it cannot be quantified by any empirical means or objective fact but what Kierkegaard is asking us to do is to have faith in a personal God this stage this faith is the most important horse to be achieved by a human being because only on the basis of this faith does an individual h'
