Kierkegaard claimed that faith required choices in self-development through three “stages on life’s way.” Each stage is a different viewpoint on life. First, there is the aesthetic life, lived in the moment, dedicated to the satisfaction of desire, and, in its refined form, to the appreciation of the arts. Lacking in this life is commitment. Commitment is found in the second stage in the ethical life, which seeks a unified self over time. The third stage is the religious life.