This is the first post I share to this forum so I wanted to talk about an special guest: Father of existencialism, philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
I’ve read in this forum someone talking about Nietzsche being a “biological visionary” and I agree partially to that statement. When one enters into Nietzsche's philosophy and thought is visible a sort of energy-based natural-instinctive way of viewing life. Nonetheless Nietzsche literally got nuts in the last period of his life and even though we cannot say it was because of something related to his diet or even his natural thought, it is pretty sure he was kind of a narcissist and megalomaniac and I think that devalues his work (unfortunately).
On the other hand we have Kierkegaard (although less known than the famous german nihilist) he is in fact the father of all existential philosophies. Kierkegaard was born into a wealthy family, he was sick many times during his childhood and youth but he is always presented by others and himself as a "foodie", a very immaculated one. When I read Kierkegaard I know I’m into something of different nature, he is special, and no one will omit the fact that he wrote the revolutionary book “Fear and Trembling” in just a month. He had a really prodigious mind.
His diet was based on fine restaurant meals, roasted wild fowl, soup, fish, fruit, cookies, candies, wine, sugary coffee with cream, soup, dried fruit and tobacco. His philosophy is full of jokes, irony, good humor and holistic psychology, he always defended the individual person rather than the masses. He hated abstract academic ideas and over complicated terminology. He was also against authoritarianism and all forms of political power that wants to oppress the expression of the human being in the spiritual and physical world.
He died at 42 but it was probably because of an illness caused by an accident he had during childhood in which he fell from a tree and never recovered completely from his back and nerves, others say it was likely Guillain-Barré syndrome. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you a quick introduction because I know he is an unknown for many people. Here are some quotes and fragments of Kierkegaard's work that can show us his vision of biology, consciousness, science, existence, energy and will.
Kierkegaard on Biology
- «As nature formed the more delicate organs in such a fashion that they do not come into direct contact with objects, but are covered, for otherwise the organs would be destroyed, so ordinarily men cannot endure being related direct to the idea» (Journals)
- «(…) by nature man is more afraid of the truth than of death — and this is perfectly natural: for the truth is even more repugnant than death to man’s natural being. What wonder, then, that he is so afraid of it? Attentiveness to the truth requires being aside (Christ took him aside [Mark 7. 33]), aside from the crowd. And this in itself is enough to make a man fearful and anxious — more than in face of death. For man is a social animal — only in the herd is he happy» (Journals)
- His humor even involved a knowledge of biology:
«Surely not even my bitterest enemy would deny that I shall acquire a certain renown. But I am beginning to wonder whether I will not become renowned in a quite different sphere than I have hitherto imagined — namely, as a naturalist. For I have discovered, or at least made a very significant contribution to the natural history of parasites, I mean priests and professors, those voracious and prolific parasites, who even have the effrontery (unlike other parasites) to try and pass themselves off as the friends and disciples of those whose sufferings they live on» (Journals)
Kierkegaard on Food and Nutrition:
- During his time was invented the Rumford's Soup that is considered nowadays the first economic and "nutritional" complete meal for the poor and the masses. His ingredients are Pearl barley, Peas, Cuttings of fine wheaten bread, Salt, Very weak beer, vinegar, or rather small beer turned sour, Water. We now can see the disaster that those kind of nutritional approaches have over the population and industry, making nutrition into some kind of witchery economy list of ingredients approved by an athority. So Kierkegaard talk in this terms about it:
«It is modern and spinelessness: The inventor of the Rumford Soup becomes exalted nobility .... which is essentially nothing done for pauperism, but there was discovered a new path to riches» (Journals)
If you go deep into the kierkegaardian thought you can see how he was always against authoritarianism and any way of establishing a “rule for everybody”, even in food.
- «Next he filled the cup with sugar over the rim and then poured coffee on it. It amused him no end every day to see the sugar melt. This really delighted him. The coffee was so extremely strong that he destroyed himself with it. It was excellent coffee...at an exorbitant price» (Testimony of Israel Levin, who was Kierkegaard's editor)
- He compares sugary coffee with friendship: « I went out to the café where I had gone every day the previous time to enjoy the beverage that, according to the poet’s precept, when it is 'pure and hot and strong and not misused’, can always stand alongside that to which the poet compares it, namely, friendship. At any rate, I am a coffee-lover» (Book "Repetition")
Kierkegaard on Consciousness, will and energy.
«This, then, is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think»
«Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced»
«It is said that a golden key opens up everything. But it is certain that decisiveness and determination also open things up…» (Journals)
«Consciousness presupposes itself, and to ask about its origin is an idle question that is just as captious as that ancestor: What came first, the tree or the seed?» (Journals)
«Fools and young people say that everything is possible for a human being. But that is a gross error. Spiritually speaking, everything is possible, but in the finite world there is much that is not possible» (Fear and Trembling)
«When someone faints, we call for water, eau de Cologne, smelling salts; but when someone wants to despair, and the word is: Get possibility, get possibility, possibility is the only salvation. A possibility—then the person in despair breathes again, he revives again, for without possibility a person seems unable to breathe» (The sickness unto death)
«The first condition for a resolution is to have, that is, to will to have a true conception of life and of oneself» (Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions)
«The more consciousness, the more self; the more consciousness, the more will; the more will, the more self. A person who has no will at all is not a self; but the more will he has, the more self-consciousness he has also» (The sickness unto death)
«People must indeed have lived in a far simpler fashion when they believed that God revealed his will in dreams… The poor opinion of dreams typical of our times is . . . connected to the spiritualism that constantly presses upon consciousness, whereas those simpler times piously believed that the unconscious life in a person was both the dominant and the most profound aspect» (Journals)
Kierkegaard on Science Authoritarianism
«And if science is to be the eye of the human race, what confusion must there be if the eye itself is confused. Yet were one to designate the confusion of the modern age, I know of no more appropriate phrase than: it is dishonest» (Journal)
«Most of what nowadays flourishes best of all under the name of scientific research (especially the natural sciences) is not science at all but curiosity. In the end all corruption will come from the natural sciences. Many admirers […] believe that scientific seriousness means carrying out investigations through the microscope. What foolish faith in the microscope! – no, microscopic observation merely makes curiosity more comical. To say simply and profoundly that we cannot see with the naked eye how consciousness comes into existence is perfectly in order. But to put your eye to a microscope and look and look and look and still not see it, that is comedy […]. The hypocrisy of natural science is that it is supposed to lead to God» (Journals)
«Science, theory, always comes last. Take another example. To turn the grammar of a living language into a science is never really successful, but only that of a dead language, because the direct present existence of a living language makes science difficult» (Journals)
«As one speaks of artificially produced warmth and light, and of artificial nature (in contrast to natural warmth, daylight, natural flowers, natural beauty, and so on), so there is also a stupidity which is artificially produced. There is no one so stupid about Christianity, not even the stupidest of all other men, as the ‘professor’. His stupidity is produced artificially, and by means of much study» (Journals)
«The enormous development of the natural sciences in our time shows that humanity despairs of becoming spirit; science is a distraction. The analogies in individual life can be easily indicated» (Journals)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's it. As it might be obvious, I'm a huge fan of Kierkegaard, and knowing the work of Dr. Ray Peat and William Blake I just couldn't believe no one has ever talk about Kierkegaard as a biological visionary. Kierkegaard has one of the most sincere philosophical approaches to real human existence in its whole.
I’ve read in this forum someone talking about Nietzsche being a “biological visionary” and I agree partially to that statement. When one enters into Nietzsche's philosophy and thought is visible a sort of energy-based natural-instinctive way of viewing life. Nonetheless Nietzsche literally got nuts in the last period of his life and even though we cannot say it was because of something related to his diet or even his natural thought, it is pretty sure he was kind of a narcissist and megalomaniac and I think that devalues his work (unfortunately).
On the other hand we have Kierkegaard (although less known than the famous german nihilist) he is in fact the father of all existential philosophies. Kierkegaard was born into a wealthy family, he was sick many times during his childhood and youth but he is always presented by others and himself as a "foodie", a very immaculated one. When I read Kierkegaard I know I’m into something of different nature, he is special, and no one will omit the fact that he wrote the revolutionary book “Fear and Trembling” in just a month. He had a really prodigious mind.
His diet was based on fine restaurant meals, roasted wild fowl, soup, fish, fruit, cookies, candies, wine, sugary coffee with cream, soup, dried fruit and tobacco. His philosophy is full of jokes, irony, good humor and holistic psychology, he always defended the individual person rather than the masses. He hated abstract academic ideas and over complicated terminology. He was also against authoritarianism and all forms of political power that wants to oppress the expression of the human being in the spiritual and physical world.
He died at 42 but it was probably because of an illness caused by an accident he had during childhood in which he fell from a tree and never recovered completely from his back and nerves, others say it was likely Guillain-Barré syndrome. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you a quick introduction because I know he is an unknown for many people. Here are some quotes and fragments of Kierkegaard's work that can show us his vision of biology, consciousness, science, existence, energy and will.
Kierkegaard on Biology
- «As nature formed the more delicate organs in such a fashion that they do not come into direct contact with objects, but are covered, for otherwise the organs would be destroyed, so ordinarily men cannot endure being related direct to the idea» (Journals)
- «(…) by nature man is more afraid of the truth than of death — and this is perfectly natural: for the truth is even more repugnant than death to man’s natural being. What wonder, then, that he is so afraid of it? Attentiveness to the truth requires being aside (Christ took him aside [Mark 7. 33]), aside from the crowd. And this in itself is enough to make a man fearful and anxious — more than in face of death. For man is a social animal — only in the herd is he happy» (Journals)
- His humor even involved a knowledge of biology:
«Surely not even my bitterest enemy would deny that I shall acquire a certain renown. But I am beginning to wonder whether I will not become renowned in a quite different sphere than I have hitherto imagined — namely, as a naturalist. For I have discovered, or at least made a very significant contribution to the natural history of parasites, I mean priests and professors, those voracious and prolific parasites, who even have the effrontery (unlike other parasites) to try and pass themselves off as the friends and disciples of those whose sufferings they live on» (Journals)
Kierkegaard on Food and Nutrition:
- During his time was invented the Rumford's Soup that is considered nowadays the first economic and "nutritional" complete meal for the poor and the masses. His ingredients are Pearl barley, Peas, Cuttings of fine wheaten bread, Salt, Very weak beer, vinegar, or rather small beer turned sour, Water. We now can see the disaster that those kind of nutritional approaches have over the population and industry, making nutrition into some kind of witchery economy list of ingredients approved by an athority. So Kierkegaard talk in this terms about it:
«It is modern and spinelessness: The inventor of the Rumford Soup becomes exalted nobility .... which is essentially nothing done for pauperism, but there was discovered a new path to riches» (Journals)
If you go deep into the kierkegaardian thought you can see how he was always against authoritarianism and any way of establishing a “rule for everybody”, even in food.
- «Next he filled the cup with sugar over the rim and then poured coffee on it. It amused him no end every day to see the sugar melt. This really delighted him. The coffee was so extremely strong that he destroyed himself with it. It was excellent coffee...at an exorbitant price» (Testimony of Israel Levin, who was Kierkegaard's editor)
- He compares sugary coffee with friendship: « I went out to the café where I had gone every day the previous time to enjoy the beverage that, according to the poet’s precept, when it is 'pure and hot and strong and not misused’, can always stand alongside that to which the poet compares it, namely, friendship. At any rate, I am a coffee-lover» (Book "Repetition")
Kierkegaard on Consciousness, will and energy.
«This, then, is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think»
«Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced»
«It is said that a golden key opens up everything. But it is certain that decisiveness and determination also open things up…» (Journals)
«Consciousness presupposes itself, and to ask about its origin is an idle question that is just as captious as that ancestor: What came first, the tree or the seed?» (Journals)
«Fools and young people say that everything is possible for a human being. But that is a gross error. Spiritually speaking, everything is possible, but in the finite world there is much that is not possible» (Fear and Trembling)
«When someone faints, we call for water, eau de Cologne, smelling salts; but when someone wants to despair, and the word is: Get possibility, get possibility, possibility is the only salvation. A possibility—then the person in despair breathes again, he revives again, for without possibility a person seems unable to breathe» (The sickness unto death)
«The first condition for a resolution is to have, that is, to will to have a true conception of life and of oneself» (Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions)
«The more consciousness, the more self; the more consciousness, the more will; the more will, the more self. A person who has no will at all is not a self; but the more will he has, the more self-consciousness he has also» (The sickness unto death)
«People must indeed have lived in a far simpler fashion when they believed that God revealed his will in dreams… The poor opinion of dreams typical of our times is . . . connected to the spiritualism that constantly presses upon consciousness, whereas those simpler times piously believed that the unconscious life in a person was both the dominant and the most profound aspect» (Journals)
Kierkegaard on Science Authoritarianism
«And if science is to be the eye of the human race, what confusion must there be if the eye itself is confused. Yet were one to designate the confusion of the modern age, I know of no more appropriate phrase than: it is dishonest» (Journal)
«Most of what nowadays flourishes best of all under the name of scientific research (especially the natural sciences) is not science at all but curiosity. In the end all corruption will come from the natural sciences. Many admirers […] believe that scientific seriousness means carrying out investigations through the microscope. What foolish faith in the microscope! – no, microscopic observation merely makes curiosity more comical. To say simply and profoundly that we cannot see with the naked eye how consciousness comes into existence is perfectly in order. But to put your eye to a microscope and look and look and look and still not see it, that is comedy […]. The hypocrisy of natural science is that it is supposed to lead to God» (Journals)
«Science, theory, always comes last. Take another example. To turn the grammar of a living language into a science is never really successful, but only that of a dead language, because the direct present existence of a living language makes science difficult» (Journals)
«As one speaks of artificially produced warmth and light, and of artificial nature (in contrast to natural warmth, daylight, natural flowers, natural beauty, and so on), so there is also a stupidity which is artificially produced. There is no one so stupid about Christianity, not even the stupidest of all other men, as the ‘professor’. His stupidity is produced artificially, and by means of much study» (Journals)
«The enormous development of the natural sciences in our time shows that humanity despairs of becoming spirit; science is a distraction. The analogies in individual life can be easily indicated» (Journals)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's it. As it might be obvious, I'm a huge fan of Kierkegaard, and knowing the work of Dr. Ray Peat and William Blake I just couldn't believe no one has ever talk about Kierkegaard as a biological visionary. Kierkegaard has one of the most sincere philosophical approaches to real human existence in its whole.
