Explanation of Demonic Boredom from Soren Kierkegaard's Point of View and Criticism and Evaluation of Moral Solutions to Avoid It

Abstract

Boredom or the lack of attractiveness of life experiences has been one of the inevitable sufferings of mankind since the beginning of history, which intensified with the industrial revolution and modernism. Meanwhile, different thinkers have tried to explain the why and how of this phenomenon and the way to overcome it. Modern solutions emphasize taking refuge in the fashion and entertainment industry, diversifying experiences, and creating objective changes outside of the individual's existence to get rid of boredom. But Søren Kierkegaard, criticizing modern and secular solutions, believes that boredom is other than unemployment and a form of akadia, which is an emotional sign of a person's lack of attention to God in performing religious duties. According to Kierkegaard, boredom is demonic and the result of choosing a hedonistic or ethical life, and the way to avoid it is to choose religious life and self-improvement through the desire to create positive moral properties such as patience, perseverance, hope, faith, love and happiness. Also, his other strategy to avoid boredom is to adopt a subjective, aesthetic and abstract view of the phenomena of the world. From his point of view, modern solutions lead a person to an endless effort to change the content of his external world by analyzing and interpreting the feeling of boredom incorrectly. Unaware that the root of solving the problem is changing the inner world through adopting an aesthetic view and poetic revision of experiences.

Keywords

• boredom
• acedia
• aesthetics
• mood
• demonic boredom
• poetic reconstruction of experiences