Repetition and Movement

At the very beginning of this blog I mentioned the Eleatics. In plain English, Eleatics believed that anything that changed or moved was not real. They recognized that in the physical world there was always change, but they simply believed that all that stuff was unimportant, and in fact an illusion. However, for Kierkegaard's definition of repetition, he could not accept this to be true. After all, repetition is meaningful motion. He believed that the world was constantly changing, but for that change to have meaning, something must stay the same. For example, while time marches on and the seasons change, every day the girl in the garden is able to appreciate her flowers with enthusiasm. That constancy in change is repetition, and it is vital to happiness.

Thus, for Kierkegaard not only was it demeaning to accept that our current life and all the things we observe do not matter, but he believed that denying motion meant that repetition, and thus happiness were impossible. In this way, Kierkegaard had to mention the Eleatics, just so that he could make the point that our lives now DO matter.