Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher, evolved a philosophical system which divided existence into three categories; that is, he claimed that experience may be of three kinds: aesthetic, ethical, and religious.



The child is an example of the individual who lives almost exclusively at the aesthetic level. For the child, all choices are made in terms of pleasure and pain, and experience is ephemeral, having no continuity, no meaning, but being merely a connection of isolated, non-related moments. The ethical level of experience involves choice; whenever conscious choice is made, one lives at the ethical level. At the religious level, one experiences a commitment to oneself, and an awareness of one's uniqueness and singleness. To live at the religious level means to make any sacrifice, any antisocial gesture that is required by being true to oneself.



Clearly, these levels are not entirely separable, but may coexist; when one chooses the aesthetic level of existence, the very act of choice involved ethical experience; and when one makes choices at the ethical level, and these choices are true to one's own singleness, one lives at the religious level.

posted by The Wizard



I think that's what I want. A life at the religious level. But I possess neither the conviction nor the strength to escape the aesthetic level. And so I'm, in truth, still bumbling about on the ethical level, with grandiose visions of a yet unseen religious level.

posted by The Wizard



I think that's why you have to respect and admire religious folk. Because if they are true, they are living a life that is full of conviction. Regardless of what you think about those convictions, the mere fact that they can committ is reason enough to applaud.