Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The self is a relation that relates itself to itself.”
Søren Kierkegaard · Existentialism (forerunner) · Modern · 1849
What does it mean?
The self is not a thing you have. It is a relation that relates itself to itself. The definition goes on, and it will say that this relation, to be a self, rests transparently in the power that established it. A rival reading stops at the first clause and hears a modern theory of identity, fluid and self-made. The book is about despair, the sickness of a relation that will not be itself before God. Another reading finds the sentence empty, a verbal spiral. The spiral is deliberate.
Did Søren Kierkegaard really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Hong and Hong. The sentence opens a longer definition: the self is a relation that relates itself to itself, or is the relation's relating itself to itself in the relation. The card keeps the first clause. The book is signed Anti-Climacus.
Where it comes from
The Sickness unto Death, part I.A, in the Hong and Hong translation
Approximate date: 1849.
How to use it
Someone in therapy in Glasgow says they are 'working on themselves' as if the self were a project beside them. The sentence says the working is the self. That can be said in a secular room. The book will not stay in the secular room. If you use the clause, say what you have cut off, which is the God-relation the definition is building toward.
A mindset reading
Anti-Climacus is not Johannes Climacus and not a straightforward signature. The height of the voice is part of the claim. A definition this odd is a reason to read the next page, not a reason to put it on a poster about authenticity.
Understand the philosophy
The Sickness unto Death, 1849, sorts despair. Part I.A is the definition the sorts depend on. Hong and Hong are the English. The full sentence is harder than the clause, which is why the clause travels alone.
- self
- mind
- meaning
FAQ
What does it mean?
The self is not a thing you have. It is a relation that relates itself to itself. The definition goes on, and it will say that this relation, to be a self, rests transparently in the power that established it. A rival reading stops at the first clause and hears a modern theory of identity, fluid and self-made. The book is about despair, the sickness of a relation that will not be itself before God. Another reading finds the sentence empty, a verbal spiral. The spiral is deliberate.
Did Søren Kierkegaard really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Hong and Hong. The sentence opens a longer definition: the self is a relation that relates itself to itself, or is the relation's relating itself to itself in the relation. The card keeps the first clause. The book is signed Anti-Climacus.
Which work is it in?
The Sickness unto Death, part I.A, in the Hong and Hong translation Approximate date: 1849.