Kierkegaard Notes--Online Readings

• Teleological suspension of the ethical: suspension of the moral law for the sake of a higher law
• Ex: Abraham commanded to kill son, Isaac
• Break the moral law against murder for his higher obligation to obey God
• "Fear and Trembling"
• Concerned with ethics/religion
• An act depends on the knowledge a person has--do they have special knowledge related to their action or not?
• Normal person: Abraham was going to commit murder
• Through faith perspective: Abraham was obeying God
• Criticized Hegel
• Attempt to rationalize everything, including religion
• Kierkegaard called himself a poet, not a philosopher
• Resignation is a willed act, not helpless abdication
• Kierkegaard: idea of "faith by virtue of the absurd"
• Kierkegaard does not consider himself to be a "Knight of Faith", as Abraham was
• Individual= absolute
• Ethical/impersonal= inferior to the individual
• Man needs both the ethical and God-like ways of living, but they are not equal to each other
• "Faith is the highest passion in a person"--Kierkegaard
• passion is required for the qualitative leap of faith toward God

[sorenkierkegaard.org/fear-and-trembling.html]

• Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)--Background/Biography
• Influenced by father's faith at an early age (emphasis on Christ's suffering)
• Believed marriage would hinder his philosophical calling--called off an engagement
• Published works:
• The Concept of Irony
• Fear and Trembling
• The Concept of Dread
• Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing
• The Sickness Unto Death
• Either/Or
• Repetition
• Concluding Unscientific Postscript
• Works of Love
• Resisted an all-embracing system of thought
• Inspired much of existentialism--a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will (translated Dutch: "condition of existence")
• Influenced Jaspers, Heidegger, and Sartre
• Kierkegaard's analysis of freedom and angst

[http://www.egs.edu/library/soeren-kierkegaard/biography/]

More to be added later...I'm having trouble getting these other websites to open.