Why Wanting Is Better Than Having | Kierkegaard

Have you ever met someone who seemed to love the idea of you, right up until you loved them back? In 1843, Søren Kierkegaard published a diary so unsettling he refused to sign his own name to it. This video essay unpacks The Seducer's Diary — a man who orchestrates a woman's desire with surgical precision, only to lose all interest the moment he finally has her — and what Kierkegaard's philosophy of the "aesthetic" and "ethical" stages reveals about why some people can only ever love the chase. RECOMMENDED READING: Søren Kierkegaard — Either/Or, Part I (1843), "The Seducer's Diary" Søren Kierkegaard — Fear and Trembling (1843)