Freedom from Despair: An Examination of the Self in Hume, Kant and Kierkegaard

Against those who argue the self does not exist and thus is a negligible concept, I claim the concept is crucial for practical purposes. To do so, I engage the philosophies of Hume, Kant and Kierkegaard, which together offer a complex context to understand the self, namely, psychologically, morally and socially.;Hume clarifies the problem of the self. Taking a skeptical stance, he argues efforts to know the self's essence are futile; instead, he focuses on its unity. While admitting his skeptical account seems flawed, he develops an account of the self with regard to the passions (not the understanding), thereby pointing towards the experiential significance of the concept. Denying we have knowledge of what the self is, Hume nonetheless asserts its psychological reality vis-a-vis our emotions.;Also renouncing the metaphysical realm, Kant goes beyond Hume by elucidating the practical characteristics of the self---the way it functions in the world. First, he argues it is a formal condition for the possibility of knowledge, a transcendental ego undergirding the empirical one. Then he defends the idea that the self is an autonomous agent, derivable from the moral law. In doing so, Kant gives the self an essential role in moral action. However, he struggles to account fully for the self as an autonomous agent in light of radical evil.;Kierkegaard fleshes out the conception of the practical self. He addresses Kant's problem of autonomy by offering a dynamic conception of the self: it strives for fulfillment in relation to God and others. Moreover, he contends the self discovers these relationships through the experience of despair. In doing so, Kierkegaard synthesizes the psychological, moral and social dimensions of the self.;While we may not be able to prove a self exists, we may still grasp its practical conception, which is ever-evolving and shaped through our personal and public interactions. By relating the philosophies of Hume, Kant and Kierkegaard, I hope to offer not only a unique understanding of the self, but also a useful bridge between analytic and continental philosophy.