Peraino 1
Jesse Peraino
Professor Wisniewski
PHIL 152-01
Oct. 12, 2019
Paper 1 – Topic 2
Kierkegaard states that despair is “not being willing to be oneself” (Melchert & Morrow).
The word despair is in many forms for Kierkegaard and is described mainly as an advantage to
the human mind but a sickness of spirit. An example used to explain despair is “A man’ wife
leaves him or the stock market crashes, and he is in despair. Is he in despair over his wife leaving
or over the market crash? No, Anti-Climacus says; he is in despair over himself” (Melchert &
Morrow). The man is not wanting to be the man with no wife or the man with a worthless stock,
