Demonic

Abstract

Demonic (det Dœmoniske-noun; dœmonisk-adjective) Both the English and Danish words derive from the Greek δαίμωv, meaning a (lesser) god or spirit. The Greek noun stems from the verb δαίoμαι, originally meaning "to allocate or distribute." In Kierkegaard's time the connotation was usually of something diabolical Kierkegaard frequently hypostatizes the demonic in the form of an abstract noun, 'det Dœmoniske', to denote the essence of being demonic. The demonic belongs with the cluster of concepts that include melancholy, anxiety and despair. It occurs from early journal entries (1837) to late journal entries (1854), and from 'The Concept of Irony to The Sickness unto Death'. Like these related concepts, the demonic is a category with which Kierkegaard tried to diagnose his own psyche and existential condition, but which he refined analytically for more general application. The notion of the demonic is introduced through its incarnations in literature, folklore, music, and the Bible. Examples include the figures of Don Juan, Faust, Mephistopheles, Shakespeare's Gloucester (later Richard III), and the demons exorcised by Christ. Socrates' 'daimonion', while related, belongs to a different category. The demonic also finds incarnations in Kierkegaard's own literary inventions, such as the merman in 'Fear and Trembling' and Quidam in 'Stages on Life's Way', as well as in pseudonymous points of view such as those of the aesthete A and Constantin Constantius. Even Anti-Climacus is described as demonic, since he confuses himself with ideality.s The demonic is characterized more generally, in 'The Concept of Anxiety', as "anxiety about the good."