Leveling is a social process in which the uniqueness of the individual is rendered non-existent by assigning equal value to all aspects of human endeavors, thus missing all the intricacies and subtle complexities of human identity.
[ Dreyfus, Hubert. ''Kierkegaard on the Internet: Anonymity Vrs. Commitment in the Present Age'']
Berkeley.edu
/ref> Leveling is highly associated with existential
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
Overview
For Kierkegaard, leveling was the process of suppressing individuality to a point where the individual's uniqueness becomes non-existent and nothing meaningful in his existence can be affirmed:
However, Kierkegaard's idea of leveling wasn't one of making life meaningless but of making life equal because every single individual has equal access to the grace and gifts of God. He wasn't concerned with earthly and material goods.
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
philosopher Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...
wrote of leveling: "by averageness and leveling down, everything gets obscured, and what has thus been covered up gets passed off as something familiar and accessible to everyone. ...by virtue of an insensitivity to all distinctions in level and genuineness, and in providing average intelligibility, opens up a standard world in which all distinctions between the unique and the general, the superior and the average, the important and the trivial have been leveled".master–slave morality
Master–slave morality (german: Herren- und Sklavenmoral) is a central theme of Friedrich Nietzsche's works, particularly in the first essay of his book ''On the Genealogy of Morality''. Nietzsche argues that there are two fundamental types of mo ...
, in which the weak and disenfranchised reframe the positive traits of the strong and powerful as not worth pursuing.
See also
* Existentialism
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
* Nihilism
* Present age
The term "present age" is a concept in the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. A formulation of the modern age can be found in Kierkegaard's work '' Two Ages: A Literary Review'':
Overview
Kierkegaard argues the present age drains the meaning o ...
References
External links
* Gregory B. Sadler
''Existentialism: Soren Kierkegaard, "The Present Age"''
June 5, 2012. YouTube.
* Robert Shut
Soren Kierkegaard "The Present Age" (Part 1)
* Robert Shut
Soren Kierkegaard "The Present Age" (Part 2)
{{Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
Continental philosophy
Self
Value (ethics)