Becoming Through Repetition: Kierkegaard’s Conception of Self-Becoming

Abstract

The meaning of Kierkegaard’s concept of self-becoming is not obvious and it fundamentally depends on how one approaches his body of work and how one understands his vocation and creative impulse as a philosopher. There is strong evidence for a non-teleological reading of him, according to which his creative impulse is to be found in his category of repetition. However, this requires a refutation of the reliability of his autobiographical narrative from 1848. An explanation of Kierkegaard’s conception of self-becoming requires an analysis of his notion of the self, as well as his notion of the process of becoming. Language acquisition marks the beginning of selfhood. The self can be viewed in context of a struggle between the first self-element and the deeper one, which can be compared to the tension between the ego and the superego in the structural model of Freud. The self can also be viewed in a way in which one’s self-determining agency constitutes and upholds a synthesis between sets of opposites, where psychical factors are on one side and the physical factors are on the other side. The agency gradually actualises possibilities and makes ideals concrete, by the so called movements of infinitude and finitude, in which an imagined possibility is chosen and brought in line with necessity. The self is forged through the subjective repetition involved in the process, both its inwardness and its character. The process of becoming is a process of change, where new qualities come into existence through freedom, in contrast to qualities that merely unfold in an organic or logical way. An anxiety and pathos motivate the task of becoming. The framework of the existence-spheres is a venue of becoming, but it should not be understood as a teleological system of subjectivity. An existence-sphere is a horizon of meaning, linked to the struggle between the self-elements. They can be compared to a form of life, and the transitions between them can be compared to an aspect-dawning. In addition to the everyday repetition involved in actualisation of possibilities, there is a transformative repetition which signifies an advancement of the self-determining agency and which can be associated with an openness to the abyssal ground of freedom. Moreover, the paradigm of repetition is aligned with the concept of self-becoming, including a time-consciousness where the focus is on the present while the orientation is towards the future, pressing forward, in contrast to the mentality of recollection. This time-consciousness makes one properly attuned to temporal existence and is part of the process of becoming in its thick sense. Self-becoming terminates in death. Immortality is to be understood as judgment and to think about death in earnest generates the time-consciousness of repetition.

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