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Beyond the despairing self: Kierkegaard and human fallibility at work

Kvalnes, Øyvind
Journal article, Peer reviewed
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/93438
Date
2012
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  • Scientific articles [1667]
Abstract
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to apply Soren Kierkegaard’s concept of despair in an analysis

of human fallibility in professional practices. The Danish existentialist defined the self as a synthesis

of the infinite and the finite, the temporal and the eternal. A person in despair is one who denies or

tries to flee the paradoxes of being in such a state. Kierkegaard viewed despair not as a feeling, but

rather as an attitude or posture a person can take on towards him-or herself. Despair can consist in

not wanting to be oneself, a being with specific limitations and shortcomings. The current study attempts

to use this understanding of despair in an analysis of how people relate to their own fallibility at work.

Cases from health care and aviation will be used to illustrate how despair can be an obstacle for

constructive dialogue about mishaps and mistakes. Practitioners should seek to find the Golden Mean

between despair (giving fallibility to much weight) and indifference (taking fallibility too lightly), a

position characterized by mindfulness.
Description
This is the originally published version of the article, as published in The International Journal of the Humanities. The journal permits authors to submit their articles for inclusion in their institutional repository.
Publisher
Common Ground Publishing LLC
Journal
The International Journal of the Humanities

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