Tillich and the Courage to Be: A Short Post on the Meaning of Despair

I've been posting my thoughts on Paul Tillich's The Courage to Be, now and then, and today I continue with a brief note on the section "The Meaning of Despair."

Tillich had already discussed his "three anxieties" of humankind: the anxieties of Fate and Death, of Emptiness and Meaninglessness, and of Guilt and Condemnation. These anxieties, Tillich asserts, are implied as a condition of human existence itself. They are therefore inescapable and, in varying proportions for different people at different times, they "are fulfilled in the situation of despair...." (Courage, p. 54.) Despair is the state in which the person is without hope. "Nonbeing is felt as absolutely victorious." (Courage, p. 54-5.) But, as often seems to be the case, the feeling of nonbeing as victorious is a contradiction, in a sense, because you have to be to feel at all. The pain of despair arises out of the knowledge of nonbeing's ultimate victory over being and the power, therefore, of nonbeing to prevent being from affirming itself. If we were only dealing with the anxiety of Fate and Death then voluntary death could be a way out of the dilemma. (Courage, p. 55.)

But, though suicide may get one out of the problem of fear of death, it does nothing to alleviate the anxiety of Guilt and Condemnation. Here Tillich injects a bit of empirical wisdom into the mix by stating that the fact that suicide cannot liberate a person from the anxiety of Guilt and Condemnation is "highly paradoxical" but is "verified by those who have experienced fully the despair of condemnation." (Courage, p. 55.) I don't take Tillich to imply here that one must experience this despair to know this, but rather than the collective experience of humankind tells us this. The point seems to me to be that it would seem like suicide should allow escape from all anxieties - it puts an end to being and all that which is a result or implied by being - including the anxieties themselves. And yet, it is the collective wisdom of humankind that it does not. Tillich explains that this implies that Guilt and Condemnation are in some sense greater than the finite act of ending one's being. They are, in some sense, therefore "infinite." He says "[Guilt and Condemnation] have an infinite weight and cannot be removed by a finite act of ontic self-negation." (Courage, p. 56.)

This, Tillich says, makes despair truly inescapable. One is aware of the futility of suicide. Finally, Tillich notes that despair is not reached by everyone. It is an extreme situation which is rare. But it is a rare situation against which the rest of our lives must be understood. "We are not always aware of our having to die," he says, "but in the light of the experience of having to die our whole life is experienced differently." (Courage, p. 56.) This seems right to me and though I may not have ever reached the state of true despair that he speaks of, I do know that the experience of having a close loved one die does change a person. My brother passed away when I was 20 years old (he was 31) and I remember the powerful sense that gave me of the reality of death. I had seen pets and grandparents die, but, though it was sad, that seemed different. Expected in a sense and it did not shake the foundations of my own sense of mortality. But a sibling dieing? When a sibling has died you know it could have been you and it will be you - you are no longer allowed the illusion that life is forever. That realization doesn't have to lead to despair, but no doubt your life is experienced differently from that day on.