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Kierkegaard – Fear and Trembling

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. Critique of Hegel.

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Kierkegaard – Fear and Trembling

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  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: individual’s 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. Abraham’s 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 >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. • Abraham’s 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)

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