ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that aesthetic fragment is Kierkegaard's idea of selfhood, and in particular, becoming a Christian self, that serves as the foundational concept underneath and within his aesthetic. Development, motion, and movement frame Kierkegaard's view of selfhood. Each person has an essential task of becoming a self, with such self-formation requiring a movement towards actualizing or concretizing a particular ontological possibility as the form of one's selfhood. Kierkegaard takes from Aristotle's thought the natural categories, especially the idea of potentiality and actuality. Ontological possibility is a key feature of human becoming, one rooted within the imagination. The demands of selfhood require that a person relate to the world by embodying Christian truth. Climacus writes of a different conception of human understanding, one grounded in a terminologically veiled, yet clearly Christian worldview. Climacus covertly depicts his discussion of Christ within Philosophical Fragments and the idea of an 'eternal teacher', one that instructs humanity on how to exist.
