Soren Kierkegaard did not believe that God defined and created human morality, but rather believed that it was up to us as individuals to define our own morals, our values ​​and our ethics. Kierkegaard wanted man to “wake up” and give up the cozy, sentimental illusions of modern life. He defined this change as the absorption of the lower form of aesthetic life to live an ethical life. Kierkegaard defined an ethical life as the moment of self-awareness. It is therefore not a question of transforming a person into someone else but rather of transforming oneself into an individual. In this sense, “ethics” represents “universal” and dominant social norms. These social norms are used to justify actions within communities. This is what carries the implications of freedom in an ethical life. This essay will explore how living an ethical life can improve the society we live in and therefore provide more opportunities for freedom. This will be analyzed by defining an ethical life, comparing it to an aesthetic life and discussing its connection with the idea of ​​freedom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Ethical living is about becoming self-aware and acting accordingly. Ethics “does not want to make the individual someone else but the individual himself; she does not want to destroy the aesthetic but to transfigure it” (Kierkegaard, 1987, p.253). Thus, ethical life absorbs aesthetic life and develops it into a higher form of life, ethics in no way excludes aesthetics. Ethics places personality at the center and aesthetics is recontextualized within the framework of man's understanding of the world and of himself. This allows diverse people to coexist in harmony and individuals to act in accordance with what is good for society. Usually we view ethics as abstract and separate from ourselves, which is why we avoid it because we do not understand what will come from it. This is similar to how many fear and avoid death, because "if a person fears transparency, they always avoid ethics." This is what creates our secret horror and fear of it, because ethics demands transparency. You must become transparent with yourself so that your morality cannot come from a religious book or a rule book, it comes from within you. This empowerment terrifies most people because the responsibility and control now belongs to them. There is no “absolute” fault since this power resides within oneself. What ceases ethics to be an abstract concept and allows it to be fully actualized is when the individual accepts this awareness and embraces it. Kierkegaard defines this as “the person who sees life ethically sees the universal, and the person who lives ethically expresses the universal in his or her life” (Kierkegaard, 1987, p. 256). Therefore, the person who leads an ethical life strives to become a universal human being. The individual lives with the assurance of living an ethically structured life. They do not need to think about insecurities that would otherwise torment them and give them anxiety, as is the case with the person who leads an aesthetic life. An aesthetic life seems much more attractive because it “gives the meaning of life to be lived for performance.” of his duties” (Kierkegaard, 1987, p.254). This places the person in the illusion that they have an ethical vision of life, but their error is to have placed an external relationship with duty. Moreover, they cannot be both unique and universal. Ethics and aesthetics seemsimilar at first glance, but it takes a true and deep understanding of oneself to be able to transform an aesthetic individual into an ethical person. Kierkegaard explains that "if the ethical life did not have a much deeper connection with the personality, it would always be difficult to defend it against the aesthetic life." This statement suggests that ethics has a deep connection to the nature of being human. So, if a person fails to understand and live this way of life, then they are missing an essential humanity while also missing the greater good. This emphasizes that ethical living is fundamental in society because it allows a person to evaluate the morality of their decisions. An aesthetic life is determined by duty or a set of particular rules, but duty and the individual are two distinct things, according to Kierkegaard. He describes the person living an aesthetic life as “an accidental human being; he believes he is the perfect human being by being the one and only human being.” This life of duty is neither romantic nor boring; therefore, the person is not fulfilled. They live too closely, without any understanding of the larger world occupied by other individuals. It is impossible to become the universal human being with this mindset. This prevents the individual from understanding the society around him and how he relates to it and to others. In relation to an ethical life, the main difference between the two is that the ethical individual is transparent with himself. The ethical person “does not allow vague thoughts to rustle within them and does not allow themselves to be distracted by their juggling of possibilities for moderation.” This is what holds back the aesthetic individual, so that he is unable to live a free life. They rely on other people to validate their thoughts and actions, while the ethical person is secure enough in their own beliefs and morals to know what they should do for themselves. The aesthetic person has only superficial motivations because he cannot understand any deeper meaning than that. This understanding of an individual's morals and ethics opens up possibilities of freedom for the person. Either/Or explains that by leading an ethical life, a person is freed from the constraints of others around them because they are no longer confined and forced to “talk about their duty every moment, to worry every moment to know if she is fulfilling it, at every moment to ask the opinion of others on what her duty is.” Ethics encourages a person to analyze their own actions on their own. They are not constrained by the bindings of a book or the statements of another individual that dictate the decisions they must make. The ethical individual is no longer limited by the limitations of his external duties linked to an aesthetic life. When man has immersed himself in the ethical life, “he will not ruin himself in the exercise of his functions.” Ethics liberates man because he is no longer a slave to the material and aesthetic duties of his life which are external to him. Thus, the truly ethical person acquires a feeling of serenity and security because he now obtains his duties from within himself. Ethics offers freedom because it requires the person to be both individual and universal. Obviously, “the personality does not have ethics outside of itself but within it and it springs from this depth”. He wants people to realize that each individual has the power to decipher their own ways of life and therefore should not depend on another power. Kierkegaard attacks our general sense that life has purpose and meaning, gives the individual a sense of freedom. They are no longer limited to relying on an external source to.253-259.