Abstract:
It may be said that the most important points of view of Kierkegaard in the stages of human existence changing. He believes that it is possible to consider all humans in one of aesthetics، moral and religious stages. In fact، human can live in the lowest existential stage of life namely the stage of aesthetic، or goes to upper level، means، moral one that its virtue is avoiding of sensible and mundane interests and obligation to universal moral law، or to reach the highest and most authentic stage of existence level that is called religious or faithfulness. The property of aesthetics level is mundane benefit and mere joining، and the main virtue of moral stage is duty and obligation to universal commands. These two stages are explained in Kierkegaard’s famous book of Or this or That. It should، however، be noted that moral life is an introductory stage for upper level، means religious one، and that it has no authenticity. Hence، the language of this book is changed from Or this or That to Not This Not That.
Machine summary:
Therefore, in order for a human being to attain their authentic essence, they must enter the stage of religious life, the characteristic of which is faith, and its fundamental result will be the attainment of eternal happiness.
However, the second interpretation regarding the threefold stages of human life has few supporters; this view holds that in Kierkegaard's works, materials can be found that suggest the different stages of existence are the same periods of the evolution of world history.
The important difference between these two philosophers in this theory is that although the stages of existence for Kierkegaard are the stages of the evolution of world history, this evolution refers to the evolution of innate consciousness in humans, and for this reason, Christianity is the ultimate goal of this evolution.
Thus, any immediate sensory perception and imaginary thought find a place in the heart of the aesthetic stage, and despite the fact that innate consciousness begins to emerge in this stage, the essence still remains in a state of potentiality and possibility; and just as the essence does not exist in the first cycle of the world, namely the pre-Sophistic stage, this essence is also not an actual essence (Kierkegaard, 1997: 108).
And this is exactly Kierkegaard's intention when he says that the aesthetic human is someone who lives in an immediate manner; meaning in a way that there is no mediator in it; and this is a life that does not result from a decision made by the individual.
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