Slide 1

Kierkegaard Sren Aabye (1813-55)

A human being is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self. But what is the self?(Sickness unto Death, Kerkegaard, p. 13)

References:Butler, Judith (2009) Kierkegaards Speculative Despair in Robert C.Solomon and Kathleen M.Higgins (eds.) Routledge History of Philosophy vol VI: The Age of German Ideslism, London: Taylor & Francis pp. 363-395Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, entry: Sren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) http://www.iep.utm.edu; accessed November 30, 2013.Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, entry: Sren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). http://plato.stanford.edu /entries/kierkegaard; accessed November 30, 2013.

Kierkegaard Sren Aabye (1813-55)Life & Works

Born 5 May 1813 in Copenhagen, DenmarkDied 11 November 1855 in Copenhagen, Denmark ttended Studying philosophy and theology in Copenhagen University

Kierkegaard is Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHER.

CRITICISM He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology and philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and parables.

EXISTENTIALISM Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking, and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. He was a fierce critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time.

Kierkegaard Sren Aabye (1813-55)Discovering the Self

A human being is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, of the temporal and the eternal, of freedom and necessity, in short, a synthesis. A synthesis is a relation between two. Considered in this way, a human being is still not a self.

(a) that the self is temporalized, (b) that it is the activity of relating, and (c) that it is not a static relation. The possibility of a synthesis is therefore negated.

Kierkegaard distinguished the self as a static relation and the self as a temporal or active one. The two dimensions of the self to be related must already in some sense be the very relation, which is to say that psychical and the physical. These two dimensions of that relation cannot be captured by a logic of non-contradiction. The reflexivity of this relation is what marks the relation as a self. For it is the distinguishing feature of a self to endeavor to become itself, constantly and paradoxically to be in the process of becoming what it already is.

Kierkegaard Sren Aabye (1813-55)Aesthetics

Kierkegaard saw that aesthetic is the first stage of existence, which gives way to the ethical, which gives way to the religious.

The aesthetic stage of existence is characterized by the following: immersion in sensuous experience; valorization of possibility over actuality; egotism; fragmentation of the subject of experience; nihilistic wielding of irony and scepticism; and flight from boredom.

As a poet of the religious Kierkegaard was always preoccupied with aesthetics. He never claimed to write with religious authority, as an apostle. His works represent both less religiously enlightened and more religiously enlightened positions than he thought he had attained in his own existence. Such representations were only possible in an aesthetic medium of imagined possibilities like poetry.

Kierkegaard Sren Aabye (1813-55)Ethics

Kierkegard used the term Ethics to denote both: a limited existential sphere, or stage, which is superseded by the higher stage of the religious life; and an aspect of life which is retained even within the religious life.

In the first sense ethics represents the universal, or more accurately the prevailing social norms.

The social norms are seen to be the highest court of appeal for judging human affairsnothing outranks them for this sort of ethicist.

Kierkegaard does recognize duties to a power higher than social norms or teleological suspension of the ethical.

But in order to arrive at a position of religious faith, which might entail a teleological suspension of the ethical, the individual must first embrace the ethical (in the first sense).