Kierkegaard in 60 seconds

In relation to ‘The Concept of Dread’, why does the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard proclaim that “possibility is the heaviest of all categories”? ... Hold my beer!

Life is a dreadful experience. On the restaurant menu of existence, the overwhelming list of possible lives goes ad infinitum. We must choose one and our life is literally at stake. How do we choose a main course if we cannot taste them all in advance? Existential dread originates from this infinite possibility that engulfs us.

Kierkegaard proclaims that possibility is the heaviest of all categories, because it relates to infiniteness. In a candy shop, we may choose between about thirty types of sweet: a reasonable choice. In the existential restaurant, we must pick from infiniteness, which is much heavier. We experience that everything could have been anything else. This is the heaviest experience one could have.