SKC Workshop Autumn 2025
Amanda Platek
(University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Tell Me What To Do
I will present a portion of my doctoral dissertation, Tell Me What To Do. My central thesis challenges Enlightenment presumptions that people ultimately seek power, authority, and autonomy. Instead, I argue that people want to be told what to do. This inclination is not rooted in a lack of individual opinions, desires, or willpower; Rather, it stems from a deep wish to avoid the anxiety, guilt, and burden that accompany autonomous decision-making. To navigate this paradox, I turn to Søren Kierkegaard’s explorations of anxiety, freedom, choice, and authentic selfhood. Kierkegaard’s work is not only of historical or academic interest, but can be redeployed to illuminate the existential challenges of our present age—particularly in the context of technologically-mediated life. This is urgent today, as rising anxiety collides with what appears to be limitless choice and possibility. This presentation has two aims: First, to examine Kierkegaard’s account of anxiety, freedom, and possibility as catalysts toward either authentic selfhood or despair; And second, to apply these insights to the distinctly modern, technologically driven forms of anxiety which shape our current age. The experience of possibility (a focal point of Kierkegaard) has changed materially from the fairly-recent digital revolution, which has crafted an illusion of infinite possibility and inexhaustible optionality. Whilst this appears as “freedom” on the surface, I argue this is illusory freedom, as the condition of excessive, inactualizable possibility generates anxiety. Phenomena which have furthered this unique experience of anxious-freedom include: The internet, social media, digital connectivity, globalization, and AI. I will explore the potential ramifications of systems which are intended to outsource human decisions making capacities, and through the lens of Kierkegaard, understand how we can move through anxiety towards self-actualization in our modern era.
