Kierkegaard for President
What is Existentialism?
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No adequate definition
A loose term for philosophers with “family
resemblances” in terms of questions, concepts, and
view of the place of human beings in the universe
A philosophy of rebellion focusing on the individual
and problem of existence
“A reaction, led by Kierkegaard, against the abstract
rationalism of Hegel’s philosophy. As against
Hegel’s conception of ‘absolute consciousness’
within which all oppositions are supposedly
reconciled, Kierkegaard insisted on the irreducibility
of the subjective, personal dimension of human life.”
Oxford Companion to Philosophy
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“In contrast to much of the philosophical
tradition, which has sought to understand a
human as a thing or an object of a particular
sort, existentialists have characterized human
existence as involving a profound tension or
conflict, an ongoing struggle between
opposing elements.” Guignon & Pereboom,
Existentialism: Basic writings (1995)
In the strict sense a post-WWII phenomenon
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Theistic existentialism (Kierkegaard,
Jaspers): find a meaning and content for
one’s life in a commitment and relation to the
absolute
Secular existentialism (Nietzsche, Heidegger,
Sartre, Camus): accept this tension and live
with maximum lucidity and intensity
G.F.W. Hegel (1770-1831)
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Absolute idealism: can be understood as simply
adding an element of time to Spinozism or a
capacity for dynamic self-realization of the one God
Consciousness: introduces a break (gap, split,
fissure) into the order of nature; ability to step back
and reflect, to question
Constant desire to close gap, resolve tension
For Hegel the problem is resolved through rational
dialectic, which mediates all oppositions
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
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Life
Writings:
Journals & Papers: 20
volumes
Collected Works: 20
Volumes
“What hope can one
entertain that one will fall
into the hands of readers
wholly ex improviso [without
expectancy]?”
From the Papers of One
Still Living
Kierkegaard’s Writings
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Early Academic and Polemic writings: From the
Papers of One Still Living (1838), The Concept of
Irony with Constant Reference to Socrates (1841)
“The Authorship Proper”
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The Pseudonymous Works (“aesthetic productivity”):
Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, The Concept of Anxiety,
Concluding Unscientific Postscript
The Veronymous Works (“religious productivity”): Edifying
Discourses, Christian Discourses, Works of Love
Posthumous Works: The Point of View for My Work
as an Author
Reading Kierkegaard
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Task: ”to make difficulties
everywhere”
The problem of pseudonymity
Existential truth and indirect
communication
 “The thing is to find a truth
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which is truth for me, to find
that idea for which I want to
live and die.” (Papers, 1835)
“Only the truth which edifies is
truth for you.” (Either/Or, 1843)
“Truth is subjectivity.”
(Concluding Unscientific
Postscript, 1845)
Central problem: What does it
mean to become a Christian?
Early Journal Entry:
Gilleleie, Aug. 1, 1835
Early Journal Entry:
Gilleleie, Aug. 1, 1835
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S.K. expresses desire to “get clear about what I am
to do,” find “my purpose,” “a truth that is true for
me…the idea for which I am willing to live and die,”
“focal point,” “an anchor in the boundless sea of
pleasure as well as in the depths of knowledge.”
“One must first learn to know oneself before
knowing anything else.”
“Of what use is objective truth…if it has no deeper
meaning for me and my life?” Nevertheless, S.K.
acknowledges an “imperative of knowledge.”
Very difficult task (like Sisyphus’); “an inward action
of the person, this God-side of the person, is
decisive.”
The Concept of Irony with Continual
Reference to Socrates (1841)
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“If we are looking for a clear exposition, we
look in vain.”
Magisterial dissertation with fifteen theses:
Languages, Defense, Hegelian?
“As philosophy begins with doubt so also that
life which is worthy of a human being begins
with irony.” 15th Thesis
Part One: The Position of Socrates
Viewed as Irony (The Phenomenon)
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Xenophon: apostle of finitude, focuses on
empirical actualty, the useful
Plato: provides Socrates with the idea, the
importance of questioning is in the answers
Aristophanes: parodies Socrates, comic view
as corrective element, the importance of
questioning without an interest in the answers
Socrates’ existence was irony. It was the
point of departure for his activity.
Part Two: The Concept of Irony
(Development of the Concept)
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The World-Historical Validity of Irony, The
Irony of Socrates
Irony: a qualification of subjectivity (the first
appearance of subjectivity in Socrates)
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infinite (doesn’t negate this or that phenomenon)
absolute (that by virtue of which it negates is a
higher something that still is not)
negativity (only negates)
directed against the whole of existence;
actuality has lost its validity
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Socrates’ position: “whole substantial life of
Greek culture (actuality) had lost validity for
him; his life was demanding the actuality of
subjectivity, of ideality”
“An individual may be world-historically
justified yet unauthorized”—a sacrifice
“The Concept of Irony not only treats of irony,
but is irony.” (A contemporary Danish
Reviewer)
Help, my friend needs a life!
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”Wine no longer cheers my
heart...pleasure
disappoints.”
”How empty and utterly
meaningless life is.”
”I feel as if I were a piece
in a game of chess, when
my opponent
says of it: That piece
cannot be moved!”
Either/Or, A Fragment of Life (1842)
Edited by Victor Eremita
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An example of Kierkegaard’s method of Indirect
Communication
Volume I: The Aesthetic Life (by A)
Mood: Witty, ironic, disillusioned
Pleasure/Enjoyment: the highest goal of this life
Hedonistic & egotistic
Immediacy: direct sense experience, sensuousness,
erotic
Reflection: mediation of experience in thought, this
characterizes Johannes, who is lives for the moment
but is never present in the moment
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Boredom is the great threat to this way of life,
therefore “the Rotation Method” is necessary
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Why is boredom such a threat and how does the rotation
method ward off boredom?
Why must someone who lives the aesthetic life not “stick
fast” to anything—not have friends, not marry, not have a
career?
Since the satisfaction of one’s desires does not
endure, and one cannot continually satisfy oneself,
the aesthetic life leads to despair.
Volume II: The Ethical Life (by Judge
William)
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“The Aesthetic Validity of Marriage”
Romantic Love
 sensuous, immediate—not eternal
 conquering nature (striving for what one lacks)
 outer history, which is no true history, of minor significance
 can be portrayed poetically
Marital Love
 possessing nature (one has a love relationship)
 inner history (only true history), every single
 moment is of utmost significance
 time has great reality, i.e., one struggles in time to be faithful
 eternal validity: the relationship continues in time without end
 cannot be portrayed poetically, can only be lived by being
continually repeated and realized in an actual life
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“The Balance between the Aesthetic and the Ethical
in the Development of the Personality”
The Philosophy of Either/Or: A passionate plea for
meaningful choice
What is the difference between A’s either/or and
William’s either/or?
Choice is crucial for the content of the
personality: through the choice the personality
submerges itself in that which is being chosen,
which has the deepest relation to one who is
choosing
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The energy, pathos (passion) is of great importance.
The absolute either/or is between choosing or
not, “choice” is an ethical category through which
one becomes what one becomes.
One becomes a Self (the absolute, which has
eternal validity, i.e., it doesn’t vary with time and
place) which has a history and is an expression of
freedom…what happens to one is transformed from
necessity to freedom.
…the only way to understand God is to
appropriate in freedom everything that comes to
one, both the happy and the sad.
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The ethical doesn’t want to destroy the
aesthetic but transfigure it…to live ethically it
is necessary to become conscious of oneself,
transparent to oneself, to choose oneself=to
know oneself.
The choice has a self-determining aspect:
one acquires values and a history that will
structure one’s experience, in other words
one acquires oneself and becomes what one
becomes.
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Criticism of A
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aesthetic choice is no choice, the options aren’t
meaningful
moral indifference, no values, no good and evil
the aesthete has no history, no true self
He is lacking a moral framework or self that will
structure his experience.
choose despair! Why?
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How do you now interpret the significance of
the pseudonyms Victor Eremita, A, and
Judge William?
The Stages of Existence
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Aesthetic:
 Hedonistic, live for momentary pleasures, satisfy one’s desires
 Life of immediacy and reflection (finite ends)
 Acts without constraints or consideration for the future
 Boredom and pain are the enemy; despair
Ethical:
 Choice, commitment and responsibility
 Duty to universal rules
 Realization of not being able to live up to duty; guilt
Religious:
 Fulfillment, paradoxical inward movement of the individual which
places the particular above the universal in a relationship to the
Absolute (Infinite)
 “simultaneously to be out on 70,000 fathoms of water and yet to
be joyful”
Towards the Religious Stage
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Either/Or: Volume Two: Ultimatum
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“The Edification Implied in the Thought that as
Against God We are Always in the Wrong”
Edifying/Upbuilding Discourses
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“To Need God is a Human Being’s Highest
Perfection”
Preface (pp. 84-85)
Fear and Trembling (1843) by Johannes de
Silentio
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Who was Abraham?
“The Father of Faith” (Genesis 22)
1. Why is being a “Knight of Infinite
Resignation” the first step toward having faith
in God?
2. Why is a “Knight of Faith” delighted with
life on this earth?
3. What is “the teleological suspension of the
ethical”?
Johannes de Silentio’s Knights
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Knight of Infinite
Resignation
To resign is “to give up
possession of”
Humanly possible, doesn’t
require faith
Gain one’s eternal
consciousness
Easily recognized, “walk is
light and bold”
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Knight of faith
Most difficult of all
Paradoxically and by the
power of the absurd one
receives everything
Likely to disappoint,
belongs entirely to the world
(but changed
consciousness)
Calm and composed, lets
things take care of
themselves
Humanly impossible, a gift
of God
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1. Why is being a “Knight of Infinite Resignation” the
first step toward having faith in God?
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Infinite resignation gives up (resigns) infinitely many things
in the world and brings one closer to the infinite. By doing
this one becomes aware of one’s eternal consciousness
and that what one really needs is God.
2. Why is a “Knight of Faith” delighted with life on
this earth?
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He believes that “with God all things are possible” and that
God will give him everything he wants (eventually). Thus
he’s always joyful. If he gets what he wants (e.g., a nice
meal) that’s fine; if not, that’s fine too (since he’s resigned).
Like someone who’s found the person of one’s dreams,
he’s got all he wants and everything is wonderful.
What is “the teleological suspension of the
ethical”?
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Telos = end, purpose
The ethical = the universal, applies to everyone at
all times (E.g., “Thou shall not kill…especially one’s
own son!)
Abraham should not be confused with a Tragic Hero
(whose telos is a higher expression of the ethical)
Abraham suspends the ethical for the higher
purpose of his personal relationship to God.
Abraham’s faith suggests the paradox that the
single individual is higher than the universal.