Why Your Life is Boring | Soren Kierkegaard Either/Or

Published 2022-10-16
Most people don’t like being bored, however, every now and then we find ourselves in that state. Kierkegaard, writing under the character of an aesthetic philosopher in his book Either/Or, states that boredom may actually be a root of evil. Even if we may not go that far, we’d still like to know how to deal with boredom when it comes.
Kierkegaard has two main suggestions for dealing with boredom. First, we should try to cultivate enjoyment intrinsically rather than extrinsically. Instead of chasing after more and more, constantly pursuing change, we should try and train ourselves to enjoy the smaller things in life. By being able to find amusement in anything, we can almost always escape boredom in even the most limiting circumstances.
The next big suggestion is to actually limit our enjoyment of an experience if it starts to become too strong. Kierkegaard suggests that we train ourselves to forget easily so that experiences seem novel and brand new even when we re-encounter them. To do this, he suggests reining in our enjoyment if we find ourselves being swept away too much during an experience. #existentialism #philosophy #kierkegaard

All Comments (20)
  • 2:00 Busy don't eliminate boredom 3:30 Find enjoyment in the smaller thing. 3:30 תהנה בדבר שקורה רק ברגע עצמו (כמו שאני עושה) זה נותן פידבק מטורף + כל יום זה מעשה חדש וכל יום הוא חדש בעצמ
  • Great vid. For you Q&A: are you a spiritual or religious person? Do you believe the self is an illusion? Finally, do you believe rapists are worse than murderers and are they redeemable?
  • @cariyaputta
    The ultimate solution to boredom is train yourself to be content with little, and to have fewness of wishes. But to be able to have this level of contentment you need to first be able to restraint your senses, don't just simply act out of your impulses or desires, but constantly reflect on them. But to be able to have this level of sensory restraint you need to cultivate a degree of virtue shame and moral fear, you train to upheld your inner integrity no matter what, thus there is virtue shame, and you try to contemplate on the drawbacks of unmoral lifestyle, thus there is moral fear. If anyone reading all of these, hope you can find the ultimate peace and happiness.
  • @jthewei
    Congrats on 10k!!! well deserved
  • Great video! Your getting better at your craft. Boredom is truly the root of all evil. It’s a loss of purpose and life is full of purposeful things if your put your mind to it. Take the leap of faith in everything you do. And gratitude for being able to do this thing we call life no matter how hard it gets, good times are always ahead.
  • @ryft_music
    on the other hand, boredom is an indication of space and time to explore something new, and a lot of cool things can result from the way in which you go about resolving the boredom
  • I believe boredom might come from not being challenged enough or being too skilled for the challenge at hand Do you believe or follow a particular ethical theory? Virtue ethics vs utilitarianism vs rule based approach to life and your personal decisions?
  • @abdulhay6884
    Congrats on the 10K subs. I recently found this channel from reddit and I have being binge watching the heck outta of it. Your view and presentation is superb My question for the next Q&A is quite simple yet complex. How would you motivate 20s year old adults who find themselves fed with life and think they have seen it all?
  • What inspired you to create this channel and share your interest in philosophy? Do you have a particular interest in a specific area of philosophy and if so will you at some point create videos sharing your personal ideas/beliefs or is it meant only for talking about classic authors and their ideas? I ask these partially because I myself thought about making videos like these, but never quite figured what to talk about, there's just so much! You've been doing some great work and I quite enjoy these videos of yours! Congratulation on the 10k!
  • congrats. when are you doing the Q and A? how do you think meditation (if you practice) can influence our philosophy views or even perceived meaning in life?
  • @mikoajk4317
    Hi! A question: what do you think is a generally effective (more or less) way to make others interested in philosophy? PS. Love your channel, keep up the good work :)))
  • Personally I consider boredom as a sign from heaven that one is doing the wrong thing - so stop and try to do the right thing! What is the right thing to do?
  • What are the philosophical origins of the quantum immortality theory? I know the Scheodingers cat thought expirement is part of it but is there anything else?
  • @Dylan-xy1ir
    What is your opinion on naturalism (literature)?
  • @14kjhy41
    Favorite philosopher and what mind blowns you the most ?
  • Do you think there is any objective truth and, if so, do we have access to it and, if so, what is it. Why is it objective?
  • @madsl3643
    Which philosopher have you found most useful in your own life?