SOURCE: Mooney, Edward F. “Self-Choice or Self-Reception: Judge Wilhelm's Admonition.” In Selves in Discord and Resolve: Kierkegaard's Moral-Religious Psychology from Either/Or to Sickness Unto Death, pp. 11-26. New York: Routledge, 1996.

In the following excerpt, Mooney discusses the concepts of autonomy, rights, and responsibilities inherent within Judge Wilhelm's advice to “A” that he accept himself.

The I chooses itself, or more correctly, it accepts itself.

What is crucial is not so much deliberation as the baptism of choice by which it is assumed into the ethical.

—Judge Wilhelm, Either/Or II¹

“Choose yourself!” is the admonition delivered by Judge Wilhelm to his friend, identified only as “A,” in an avuncular, terribly wordy letter. The editor of Either/Or, one Victor Eremitor, provides an imposing title for this second letter from the Judge: “The Balance Between the Esthetic and the Ethical in the Development of the Personality.”² Although Judge...