The Concept of Anxiety
The Concept of Anxiety (): "A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin", is a philosophical work written by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in 1844. The original 1944 English translation by Walter Lowrie (now out of print), had the title The Concept of Dread. "The Concept of Anxiety" was dedicated "to the late professor Poul Martin Møller". He used the pseudonym Vigilius Haufniensis (which, according to Kierkegaard scholar Josiah Thompson, is the Latin transcription for "the Watchman" of Copenhagen) for "The Concept of Anxiety".
The Concept of Anxiety
Kierkegaard believed "each generation has its own task and need not trouble itself unduly by being everything to previous and succeeding generations". In an earlier book he had said, "to a certain degree every generation and every individual begins his life from the beginning", and in another, "no generation has learned to love from another, no generation is able to begin at any other point than the beginning", "no generation learns the essentially human from a previous one. He was against the Hegelian idea of mediation because it introduces a "third term" that comes between the single individual and the object of desire. Kierkegaard is essentially asking if the teaching of a child begins with the prohibition or with love. In other words, does Christianity say to first teach about "the works of the flesh" (the negative) or about the "Fruit of the Holy Spirit" (the positive)? Does the answer lie in the world of the spirit or in the world of temporality? Should we always go backwards to review the negative or forward because we are concentrating on the positive. Or should there be a balance between the two? And he just puts the question out there as part of the "great dialogue of science" for consideration. He began this discussion in his "Two Upbuilding Discourses of 1843" in "Galatians" chapter 3 ("There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus").