individually can we find out what ultimate truth may be. Thus according to Kierkegaard a person, in their own "inwardness", must examine issues and draw a conclusion about what those circumstances mean. Thus responsibility for happiness or a good life rests with the individual. Each person must overcome whatever stands in their way including, angst, despair, objectivity and the commonplace. As SK said in a letter written in 1835:
"What I really lack is to be clearer in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know.... The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die."
One of the many later writers who were influenced by Kierkegaard's thought and manifest his ideas in their writings and stories was Russian author Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). Chekhov's writing was strongly characterized by this quest of individuals to overcome the limitations of their circumstances and seek happiness. That his characters do not succeed at times was part of the point, they strove on an individual basis to find meaning in their lives regardless of the outcome. We are fortunate that Chekhov was not only a prolific author, but also a devoted letter writer. His letters are a literary treasure unto themselves and they open up to us his existentialist viewpoint. In one of the letters he wrote, Chekhov stressed his Kierkegaardian emphasis on the individual and the capacity of that individual to change circumstances for the better. Chekhov wrote:
I'm not a liberal, a conservative, an evolutionist, a monk, or indifferent to the world. My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom- freedom from violence and falsehood in whatever form they may be expressed."
Certainly this viewpoint must have played a role in Chekhov's determination to travel across the entire length of Russia to visit the prisoners at the Russian penal colony on Sakhalin Island. His book chronicling his findings (called Sakhalin Island) was certainly an individuals attempt to "see what God really wishes me to do"
Anton Chekhov also shared Kierkegaard's suspicion of conventional wisdom or "the crowd." Kierkegaard famously said of the masses of man in his 1847 book Works of Love:
"The crowd is untruth.... Do you dare to claim that human beings, in a crowd, are just as quick too reach for the truth, which is not always palatable, as for untruth, which is always deliciously prepared..."
Chekhov's existentialist focus on the individual, gives him a similar view to that of SK. In a letter written in 1886, Chekhov stated:
"Only the crowd thinks it knows and understands everything there is to know and understand. And the more stupid it is, the more open-minded it thinks itself to be."
Soren Kierkegaard and Anton Chekhov never met this side of heaven, however they shared the conviction that individuals acting as individuals could use their judgment, "inwardness" and "freedom from violence and falsehood" to make themselves and subsequently their world a better place.
"What I really lack is to be clearer in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know.... The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die."
One of the many later writers who were influenced by Kierkegaard's thought and manifest his ideas in their writings and stories was Russian author Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). Chekhov's writing was strongly characterized by this quest of individuals to overcome the limitations of their circumstances and seek happiness. That his characters do not succeed at times was part of the point, they strove on an individual basis to find meaning in their lives regardless of the outcome. We are fortunate that Chekhov was not only a prolific author, but also a devoted letter writer. His letters are a literary treasure unto themselves and they open up to us his existentialist viewpoint. In one of the letters he wrote, Chekhov stressed his Kierkegaardian emphasis on the individual and the capacity of that individual to change circumstances for the better. Chekhov wrote:
I'm not a liberal, a conservative, an evolutionist, a monk, or indifferent to the world. My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom- freedom from violence and falsehood in whatever form they may be expressed."
Certainly this viewpoint must have played a role in Chekhov's determination to travel across the entire length of Russia to visit the prisoners at the Russian penal colony on Sakhalin Island. His book chronicling his findings (called Sakhalin Island) was certainly an individuals attempt to "see what God really wishes me to do"
Anton Chekhov also shared Kierkegaard's suspicion of conventional wisdom or "the crowd." Kierkegaard famously said of the masses of man in his 1847 book Works of Love:
"The crowd is untruth.... Do you dare to claim that human beings, in a crowd, are just as quick too reach for the truth, which is not always palatable, as for untruth, which is always deliciously prepared..."
Chekhov's existentialist focus on the individual, gives him a similar view to that of SK. In a letter written in 1886, Chekhov stated:
"Only the crowd thinks it knows and understands everything there is to know and understand. And the more stupid it is, the more open-minded it thinks itself to be."
Soren Kierkegaard and Anton Chekhov never met this side of heaven, however they shared the conviction that individuals acting as individuals could use their judgment, "inwardness" and "freedom from violence and falsehood" to make themselves and subsequently their world a better place.
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