Kierkegaard's Philosophy

• Kierkegaard, a Danish religious philosopher, authored over twenty-five books, and was recognized as a 'mystic', a 'religious ascetic', and a ‘brilliant poet’.
• Kierkegaard's philosophy stands apart from the conceptual systems of philosophers like Aristotle, Leibniz, and Hegel, who focus primarily on abstract, logical, and speculative thinking.
• Following the example of Socrates, Kierkegaard aimed to encourage people to think independently, exercise their judgment, and make deliberate choices.

The Concept of Anxiety

• The Concept of Anxiety explores the distinction of ‘Angst’, defined as anxiety or dread that exists independently of any apparent objective threat.

Categories

• Kierkegaard's writings are divided into 'aesthetic' works as well as 'religious' series published under his own name.
• The 'aesthetic' collection starts with Either/Or, followed by Fear and Trembling, Repetition, Stages on Life's Way, and other works.
• His religious writings begin with Edifying Discourses, followed by Christian Discourses, Works of Love, Judge for Yourself, Practice in Christianity and other religious works.
• Kierkegaard hoped his religious writings would help readers understand Christianity and offer a detailed analysis of human existence.
• Kierkegaard thought one must liberate themselves from social, cultural, and religious values to realize their true significance.
• To develop a pure heart and mind, a person should concentrate their will and thinking on one thing.
• Kierkegaard's awareness of the absurd, paradoxical nature of existence is central to existential philosophy.
• Kierkegaard valued the Romantic concept of Lebensanschauung, viewing it as each individual's duty to form a personal life-view instead of following societal norms.
• Kierkegaard likened himself to Janus, and stated 'with one face I laugh, with the other I weep'.

Self-Awareness

• Kierkegaard aimed to shock people into self-awareness and recognize the shallowness of their so-called Christian manner of living.

Theory of Indirect Communication

• Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript includes the most comprehensive discussion of his theory of indirect communication.
• Direct communication is effective for facts, but it cannot catalyze the realization of subjective truth, or the only type of truth that potentially evolves a person's consciousness.
• His use of pseudonyms was the most fundamental method of his indirect communication.
• His pseudonymous characters function as fictional characters in a novel, with their own opinions, behaviour and outlook on life, with the hope that readers recognize aspects of the lifestyle and manner of thinking and inspire inward reflection.
• Socratic irony was another mode of indirect communication employed by Kierkegaard.
• Kierkegaard believed that "all communication of knowledge is direct communication" and "all communication of capability is indirect communication".
• Kierkegaard's writing style helps readers assimilate his material to make his thought their own, so that it becomes a subjective experience that inspires transformation.
• Kierkegaard insisted that his writings were more like poetry.
• Existential truth adapts insights that all people adapt to their own unique experiences and outlook, and Kierkegaard felt that this could be best achieved via 'indirect communication'.
• Kierkegaard stated "Most men are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others, but the task is precisely to be objective toward oneself and subjective toward all others".

Objective and Subjective Truth and Faith

• Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments, under the pseudonym ‘Johannes Climacus', provides the clearest explanation of his insights in this area.
• Objective truth attempts to understand existence via specific true or false criteria or theories, providing only factual or theoretical information about things in the world, and completely ignoring the essence of living things.
• What people 'know' is based on facts derived from historical information, or on logically derived data through the senses.
• All essential knowing is related to existence and existing.
• No one else can ever know the truth of your existence– only you (and, in Kierkegaard's view, God) can know the truth of your existence.
• If a person does not become what he understands, then he does not understand it either.

Subjectivity, Inwardness, is Truth

• Kierkegaard regards subjective truth as the highest truth available to mankind.
• Subjective truth is sometimes called existential truth because it is essentially related to one's actual existence.
• Objective truth is about the facts of being, while subjective truth is about the way of being.
• Only God has access to objective truths about anyone's existence.
• Kierkegaard is referring to active involvement, manifested by passionate self-commitment to innermost moral or spiritual commitments.
• Experiencing subjective truth means praying 'in truth' with passionate inward commitment until beliefs transform consciousness.
• The subjective experience of living within truth is immersing oneself in the inward activity of exploring and discovering truth of one's own self in the process of existing.
• Existence cannot be contained and after death it is no longer existence.
• Kierkegaard asserts that there are no objective criteria by which one can judge moral values such as infidelity.
• Kierkegaard accepts the relevance and necessity of objective truth for the study of subjects such as history, maths or science, and as a tool for daily survival.
• Systematic, rational philosophies attempt to know life via theories and the assimilation of objective knowledge about reality.
• Subjective truth must be communicated indirectly because otherwise it will be only intellectually grasped; inwardness is the path away from each other.
• Subjective truth requires dual process of understanding a truth intellectually and then relating it to one's own life situation, giving rise to the subjective understanding of the truth through direct personal experience.
• The highest level of subjective truth is faith, defined as a passionate surrender to what is rationally uncertain and paradoxical.

Objective Uncertainty

• Faith is the contradiction between the infinite passion of inwardness and the objective uncertainty.
• Kierkegaard considered knowledge and faith to be polar opposites.
• Knowledge it objectively certain, but cannot tune in to the living process of reality, nor can it embrace the infinite.
• Faith is highly uncertain, but allows direct access to the infinite reality of our own being.

Leap of Faith

• Faith requires a ‘leap' on the part of the individual, but is not a blind leap.
• Kierkegaard's states the ‘leap' expresses means faith is discontinuous to what came before, and is a transition to a different dimension of consciousness.
• The Christian concept of the incarnation represents the ‘Absolute Paradox' because it requires us to believe that the eternal entered the temporal sphere of existence, taking on the limitations of finite existence.
• Christian faith is faith in this Absolute Paradox as separate from believing in the existence of God.
• ‘Existence is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, and the existing individual is both finite and infinite’.

Themes of Fear and Trembling

• Themes of Fear and Trembling touch on religious and ethical thought and it is closest to being autobiographical.
• Fear and Trembling critiques the spiritual lethargy of contemporary Christianity
• The story of Abraham and Isaac illuminates weaknesses of contemporary Christianity and Hegelian ethics regarding true Christian faith.
• Abraham stands as a man in the Bible who commits himself in faith, and through free choice, to One God, as an 'inter faith superstar', and is beloved by Jews, Christians and Mus lims.
• It tests if Abraham truly believes Isaac will be returned to him.
• His rational mind finds faith incomprehensible, for every interpretation he tries to make ends in complete failure until finally he cries out in despair.
• Hegelian and Kantian logic contrasts with faith as presented in Fear and Trembling is having an independent status as being beyond the grasp of rational thinking or social morality
• Hegel's system provides a false sense of security presenting faith as easy to attain, by devaluing other human ideals
• Hegelianism had drastically damaged Christianity because it had disregarded belief that it required ‘nerves of steel'.
• Hegel also considered faith to be a provisional state of mind/stepping stone on personal maturity.

Abraham Case Assumptions

• Asserting Abraham is the father of faith means accepting the insufficiency of ethical principles as an all-encompassing determinant of conduct.
• Conversely, one must condemn Abraham as a criminal with murderous intent in one insists that ethical principles are the determinant of ‘right’ conduct.
• In Fear and Trembling the core of the text is under the heading 'Problemata', asking 'Is there a teleological suspension of the ethical', 'Is there an absolute duty to God?' and 'Was it ethically defensible of Abraham to conceal his purpose from Sarah, fro Eleazar, from Isaac?'.
• The essence of Abraham's heroism lies in the complete absence of ethical justification for his actions.

Teleological Suspension of the Ethical

• Abraham's faith demonstrates that a person's individuality is more importance than the ethical realm; otherwise, Abraham is lost.
• Violating one set of ethical values to fulfill the requirements of higher values redeems act into heroism.
• This is a teleological suspension of one ethical value for satisfying another ethical value.
• Actions require a temporary segregation of ethical and social morals.
• There is a temporary suspension of ethical obligations in direct personal relation to God.
• There is no logic of morality stating which should be suspended, it seems ethical reasoning and faith are mutually exclusive states of consciousness.
• The negative influence of Hegelianism negatively affects Christianity.
• Reality and humans are incomplete as philosophical systems imply completeness.
• God is ‘absolutely different'/‘wholly other’, not a part of human society and morality.
• Mortal nature limits understanding of reality.
• Finite beings cannot know or understand universal or infinite things like God.

Explore the philosophy of Kierkegaard, focusing on individual thought, choice, and existentialism. Review Kierkegaard's concepts of 'Angst,' aesthetic and religious categories, and the importance of detaching from external influences to realize true significance.