Kierkegaard

1
Kierkegaard Fear and Trembling

• Three stages of the dialectical ladder
• Aesthetic
• Ethical
• Religious
• Kierkegaard problematizes the ethical by
  reconstructing the story of Abraham and Isaac
  from the Old Testament

2
Critique of Hegel

• Hegel - truth is universal can be reached only
  by using reason and objectivity alone.
• importance of surrendering oneself to universal
  ethics
• subordinating one's own desires to the wishes of
  the group the elimination of individuality.
• For Hegel and for Kierkegaard, the ethical is
  universal - system of behavioral rules must have
  general applicability - extends throughout the
  community of adherents.
• Kierkegaard argues for "suspension" of the
  ethical in favor of the religious

3
Critique of Hegel

• Contradiction of Hegel's ideas individuals
  perception of a universal ethic could be
  (internally to that person) "higher" than the
  consensus universal ethic
• Therefore that person's ethical actions violate
  the universal ethic.
• Universal ethic" is an oxymoron - individuality
  will always defeat conformity.

4
Kierkegaard Fear and Trembling

• Conflict between the ethical and the religious is
  shown in the "teleological suspension of the
  ethical" of Abraham's decision to sacrifice his
  son in obedience to God's command.
• What would be considered murder from an ethical
  standpoint is justified as a sacrifice from the a
  religious one

5

• Abrahams dilemma raises epistemological
  questions - how do we distinguish the voice of
  God from a delusional hallucination, e.g.?
• Answer, which induces fear and trembling we
  cannot know, from a rational standpoint we can
  only have faith gt Leap of faith!!!!
• Abraham can say nothing to justify his actions
  there is no rational justification, and to do so
  would return him to the realm of human immanence
  and the sphere of ethics.

6
Kierkegaard explores

• difference between Agamemnon, who sacrificed his
  daughter Iphigenia, and Abraham
• Agamemnon could justify his action in terms of
  customary morality (demanded for the sake of the
  success of the Greek military mission against
  Troy) sacrifices for purposes greater than the
  individuals involved, were intelligible to the
  society of the time.
• Abrahams sacrifice would have served no such
  purpose. It was unjustifiable in terms of
  prevailing morality, and was indistinguishable
  from murder.

7
What does Kierkegaard conclude?

• Abraham showed that one can be forced to
  disregard ethics if God commands it, which is the
  paradoxical nature of religion.
• Faith in the absurd (irrational)
• Individual relationship to and faith in God
  supercedes obedience to universally recognized
  norms (rationally acceptable)
• radical subjectivity relativity no objective
  foundation

8
Kierkegaard suggests

• defeat of rationalism and logic (universal
  ethics) by
• the irrational, the illogical, the emotional, the
  spiritual (subjective perception and motivation)