Investigating the concept of despair and its relation with sin in Kierkegaard's view

Abstract

This paper attempts to explain the Kierkegaard's view concerning despair and its relation with sin. This paper is based on the book "Sickness unto death" by Kierkegaard which is in his opinion beside the book "Fear and trembling" is the most important of his works wherein a full explanation of human despair is provided. To explain despair, it is necessary for the root cause and origin of this despair to be first addressed that in the Kierkegaard, it is the very personal alienation and his absorption in the society. For this purpose, first an explanation of this origin and the main role the self-assumes in this regard are addressed. Later, despair arising from a bidirectional relation of the self-is dealt with and then the greatest sin which is despair is investigated.