Chapter 18
Søren Kierkegaard:
Willing One Thing

     Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), the Danish existential philosopher,
writes of Authenticity in one of his "Upbuilding Discourses"
entitled "Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing".
In this meditative work, he describes the process
by which we might become whole, integrated persons:
by simplifying and focusing our lives until we center on one thing.

     Initially, we might not be attracted to willing just one thing. 
Why should we eliminate so many interesting possibilities? 
Simplifying our lives is a matter of free choice. 
Focusing on one thing rather than a dozen or a hundred
defines Authenticity according to Kierkegaard.  
He does not specify what to will, altho he calls it "the Good";        
rather he focuses on the process of creating a single life-purpose.    

I. SUCCESS IS NOT ONE THING

     First, Kierkegaard deals with the popular attractions of life:
pleasure, honor, riches, power. 
But he shows how these goals become unsatisfactory
because they ultimately turn into self-contradictions:

          Even if he named only one thing, be it pleasure or honor or wealth,
          he would not in truth be willing one thing....
          In seeking pleasure, he craves one gratification after another.
          Variety is his watchword. 
          Is variety willing one thing that shall ever remain the same? 
          On the contrary, it is willing what must never be the same.
          It is willing a multitude of things. 
          And a person who wills in this fashion is not only double-minded
          but is at odds with himself. 
          For he first wills one thing and then immediately its opposite....
          He wills the variety of pleasures. 
          When he has enjoyed himself to the point of nausea,
          when he has become weary and surfeited,
          what does he still want?  He desires new pleasures;
          his depleted soul rages for something new—something new!

          [The quotations from Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing      
          thru-out this chapter combine the best of two translations:
          1. Douglas Steere (New York: Harper, 1938 & reprints)
          Page numbers are from the 1956 Torchbook edition: Steere p. 56-57.
          2. Howard V. Hong & Edna H. Hong Upbuilding Discourses
          in Various Spirits: Kierkegaard's Writings, XV                  
          (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1993): Hong & Hong p. 26-27.]   
   
SØREN KIERKEGAARD: WILLING ONE THING by JAMES PARK                                        79

How to cite the above page from Becoming More Authentic

    Students and scholars are invited to quote
anything from the above page. 
Here is the proper form for the footnote or other reference: 

James Park  Becoming More Authentic:
The Positive Side of Existentialism
(Minneapolis, MN: Existential Books, 2007—5th edition)
p. 79  

Return to the table of contents for
Becoming More Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism.
The contents shows the outline of this chapter on Kierkegaard.

Created September 12, 2008; revised 3-3-2017;

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