Kierkegaard Philosophy: Theory of Indirect Communication PDF

Danish religious philosopher wrote more than [twenty-five books.] Labelled a '[mystic]', a ['religious ascetic]' and even a '[brilliant poet]'. Kierkegaard's philosophy differs fundamentally from the great conceptual systems offered by philosophers such as Aristotle, Leibniz and Hegel who devote t...

Danish religious philosopher wrote more than [twenty-five books.] Labelled a '[mystic]', a ['religious ascetic]' and even a '[brilliant poet]'. Kierkegaard's philosophy differs fundamentally from the great conceptual systems offered by philosophers such as Aristotle, Leibniz and Hegel who devote the greater part of their thought to [abstract,logical and speculative thinking,] Like his beloved model Socrates, Kierkegaard wished to make people [think for themselves], [use independent judgement] and [ act with deliberate choice.] *The Concept of Anxiety*, in which he illuminates the clear distinction between what he calls 'Angst' -- the feeling of anxiety or dread that exists independently of any apparent objective threat two main categories: 'aesthetic' writings, which he wrote under a variety of pseudonyms and a series of 'religious' works that were published under his own name. The 'aesthetic' series commences with [Either/Or], and is followed by [Fear and Trembling], [Repetition,] [Stages on Life's Way] and other works. Religious writings begin with several Edifying Discourses and continue with Christian Discourses, Works of Love, Judge for Yourself, Practice in Christianity and other religious works In his religious writings he wished to help his readers become aware of the true nature of Christianity and a detailed analysis of human existence. Kierkegaard was convinced that in order to [realize our true significance], we need to [free ourselves] completely from the influence of [social, cultural and religious values and expectations.] He strongly believed that an essential [precondition for developing a pure heart] and a pure mind is that a person must focus the main energy of their will and their thinking on [just one thing] His awareness of the [absurd, paradoxical nature of existence] (though not the Christian paradox that he emphasised) are fundamental to existential philosophy Most of all, Kierkegaard appreciated and was influenced by the Romantic [notion of Lebensanschauung], a life-view. The Romantics saw it as the unavoidable duty of every individual to create their own individual personal life-view rather than following the ready-made channels of  existence offered by society.  Kierkegaard to compare himself to Janus, the two-faced god, saying, 'with the one face I laugh, with the other I weep A primary aim of his writing now was to shock people into self-awareness so they could understand the [shallowness] of their [so-called Christian manner of living.] [                                         ]Theory of Indirect Communication - Kierkegaard's pseudonymous work *Concluding Unscientific Postscript* contains the most comprehensive discussion of his theory of indirect communication - Kierkegaard perceptively observed that although direct communication can be very effective in communicating facts or information, it cannot adequately catalyse the realisation of subjective truth, which is the only type of truth that potentially can evolve a person's consciousness -- - The most fundamental mode of his indirect communication was his use of pseudonyms. - His pseudonymous characters sometimes function rather like fictional characters in a novel, with their own opinions, behaviour and outlook on life.Kierkegaard's hope is that readers will recognise in themselves aspects of the lifestyle and manner of thinking represented by these fictional characters and that this will inspire inward reflection. - Another favourite [mode of indirect communication] employed by Kierkegaard was an ancient literary technique that today is known as Socratic irony. Socrates Primary form of communication was irony. - " All communication of knowledge is direct communication. All communication of capability is indirect communication"  - Kierkegaard's [indirect style of writing] effectively helps his readers to appropriate and assimilate his material in a manner that makes his thought *their own*, so that it becomes a subjective experience of reality which then potentially can inspire [a genuine transformation of their existence]. - He insisted that his writings were more like poetry.  - For existential truth presents insights that all people must adapt to their own unique experiences and outlook, and Kierkegaard felt that this could be best achieved via 'indirect communication'. - "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** His book *Concluding Unscientific Postscript* to the Philosophical Fragments (1846), written under the pseudonym of 'Johannes Climacus', provides the clearest explanation of his insights in this area - Objective truth, traditionally (since the time of Plato) attempts to understand the truth of existence via specific criteria or theories that are used for assessing true or false propositions  - Objective truth provides only factual or theoretical information about things in the world. - Objective truth completely ignores the essence of living things. - What we 'know' is either based on facts derived from historical information, or on logically derived data received through our senses. Example: For instance, an objective observation or 'truth' about a 'dog' will be based entirely upon objectively intelligible general information such as its breed, size, weight or colour, physical composition and history, descriptions of its behaviour and potentials and its similarities or differences to other entities. In the meantime, however, the dog's actual existence, its existing 'essence', the living, 'source' of all its attributes, is completely ignored. In other words the dog,  in a sense, has disappeared, and what is left is an abstraction of the dog, not the reality of the dog. "all essential knowing is therefore essentially related to existence and to existing" - This is why no one else can ever know the truth of my existence -- only I (and, in Kierkegaard's view, God) can know the truth of my existence.  'If a person does not become what he understands, then he does not understand it either" **Subjective Truth or Inwardness** **'subjectivity, inwardness, is truth... the inwardness o  the existing person is the truth'** - Kierkegaard regards subjective truth as the highest truth available to mankind, - This is why subjective truth is sometimes called existential truth because it is essentially related to one's actual existence;  the inward deepening in and through existing, is truth - Objective truth is concerned with the facts of our being, subjective truth is about our way of being  - According to Kierkegaard, only God has access to objective truths about my existence.  - When Kierkegaard speaks of the inwardness of subjectivity, he is in no way referring to introspective reflection on our own mental and emotional states, for this would merely be the mode of detached contemplation. Instead he is referring to active involvement, manifested by passionate self-commitment to one's innermost moral or spiritual commitments. EXAMPLE:  Kierkegaard uses the example of two men at prayer. One is praying to 'the true conception of God' (which for Kierkegaard is the Christian conception) but this man is praying in 'a false spirit'. The other man is praying to his pagan, primitive idol, but with 'an entire passion for the infinite' (CUP, p. 201). In Kierkegaard's opinion, it is only the latter who is experiencing subjective truth, because he is praying 'in truth' with passionate inward commitment -- his beliefs have been appropriated and have transformed his state of consciousness. - the subjective experience of being, or living, within truth -- of immersing oneself in the subjective, inward activity of experientially exploring and discovering truth of one's own self in the process of existing. - So my existence is a happening, a continually evolving, never ending process that cannot be contained in a conceptual framework and when it is eventually 'completed' by my death, then it is no longer 'existence'. - Kierkegaard asserts that there are no objective criteria by which one can judge moral values. For instance, the assertion that infidelity is immoral cannot actually be objectively 'proven', for there exist no objective standards of truth to do this.  Kierkegaard clearly accepts the relevance and necessity of objective truth for the study of subjects such as history, maths or science, and he would not deny that it plays an important role in certain matters of daily survival -- Bu this way of viewing truth, according to Kierkegaard, is also existentially indifferent in the sense that it does not shed any light on man's inner relationship to existence. EXAMPLE:, on an African safari trip, it might be useful to inform very young children of the objective truth that it is dangerous to stroke the 'giant pussycats'.  - Kierkegaard therefore strongly criticises all systematic, rational philosophies for their futile attempts to know life via theories and through the assimilation of objective knowledge about reality.  - According to Kierkegaard, subjective truth must be communicated indirectly because if spoken directly it will be only 'intellectually' or objectively grasped. 'Socrates was a teacher of the ethical, but he was aware that there is no direct relation between the teacher and the learner, because inwardness is truth, and inwardness in the two is precisely the path away from each other'  Subjective truth, however, requires an indirect transmission that creates in the reader's mind what Kierkegaard calls 'double reflection'. Double reflection refers to the dual process of first understanding a truth intellectually and then relating it to one's own life situation in a manner that gives rise to the subjective understanding of the truth through direct personal experience. FAITH - Kierkegaard believed that, ultimately, the highest level of subjective truth available to a human being is faith.  - This faith is a state of passionate surrender to what is rationally uncertain and paradoxical. "Faith is the contradiction between the infinite passion of inwardness and the objective uncertainty" - Kierkegaard considered knowledge and faith to be polar opposites:  - knowledge is objectively certain, but cannot tune in to the living process of reality, nor can it embrace the infinite. -  Faith is highly uncertain, but allows us direct access to the infinite reality of our own being LEAP OF FAITH - When Kierkegaard speaks of the fact that faith requires a 'leap' on the part of the individual, he is not talking about any type of 'blind leap' or 'a leap into the dark' The 'leap' expresses Kierkegaard's acknowledgement of the fact that faith is discontinuous with what came before -- it is not a development of any sort of potential skill or characteristic that is already present in the individual but a transition to a completely different dimension of consciousness. - According to Kierkegaard, the Christian concept of the incarnation also represents the 'Absolute Paradox' because it requires us to adopt the rationally impossible belief that the eternal entered the temporal sphere of existence, taking on the limitations of finite existence. - Kierkegaard distinguishes true Christian faith -- faith in this Absolute Paradox -- from other forms of faith, including faith that is just in the existence of God. - Kierkegaard asserts that 'Existence is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, and the existing individual is both finite and infinite' Themes of *Fear and Tremblin*g - themes of his religious and ethical thought, closest to being autobiographical. - Fear and Trembling is clearly a critique of the spiritual lethargy of contemporary Christianity - uses the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac as a vehicle to illuminate the weaknesses of contemporary Christianity and Hegelian ethics, in the light of true Christian faith.Abraham represents the first man in the Bible to devote himself in complete faith, and through free choice, to One God. an 'inter faith superstar', beloved by Jews, Christians and Mus  lims - It is a test to see if Abraham truly believes that, even if he carries out God's command to sacrifice Isaac, Isaac will be returned to him again in this world. - He is at the same time attracted and repulsed by Abraham's behaviour.  'Thus while Abraham arouses my admiration, he also appals me' his rational mind finds faith utterly incomprehensible, for every interpretation he tries to make ends in complete failure until finally he cries out in despair, - In sharp contrast to Hegelian and Kantian logic, faith is presented in Fear and Trembling as having an entirely independent status that lies beyond the grasp of rational thinking or social morality - Hegel's system provides society with a false sense of security, by presenting faith as something easy to attain, and by devaluing other human ideals, - Most of all, Kierkegaard was concerned that [Hegelianism had drastically damaged Christianity] because it had [emasculated the notion of faith] and thus had ignored the fact that what Abraham did required 'nerves of steel'. - Hegel also considered faith to be a provisional state of mind, merely a stepping stone on the path to personal maturity, Hegel regarded faith as intelligible and subordinate to the rational mind. ABRAHAM CASE ASSUMPTIONS: - If one asserts that Abraham is the acknowledged father of faith then one must simultaneously accept the insufficiency of ethical principles as an all-encompassing determinant of man's conduct. - Conversely, if one insists that ethical principles are the ultimate, universal deter minant of 'right' conduct, then under these conditions one must condemn Abraham as a criminal with murderous intent - In Fear and Trembling the core of the text is found under the heading 'Problemata'. The three questions are:  1. 'Is there a teleological suspension of the ethical?' 2. 'Is there an absolute duty to God?' 3.  'Was it ethically defensible of Abraham to conceal his purpose from Sarah, fro Eleazar, from Isaac?' Through effectively demonstrating that the very essence of Abraham's heroism lies in the complete absence of ethical justification for his actions, Kierkegaard effectively illuminates a significant flaw in Hegel's system. **TELEOLOGICAL SUSPENSION OF THE ETHICAL** Johannes points out that Abraham's faith is the paradox that demonstrates that a person's individuality -- the single individual -- is of greater importance than the ethical realm. If this is not the case, then Abraham is lost. - the act of violating one set of ethical values in order to fulfill the requirements of higher ethical values, redeems and transforms the act into heroic sacrifice. This process can be viewed as a teleological suspension of  one ethical value for the sake of satisfying another superseding ethical value. - So it seems reasonable to conclude that Abraham's actions definitely contain, and require, a teleological suspension of the ethical -- a temporary setting aside of social morals. - a temporary suspension of all ethical obligations by anyone involved in a direct personal relation to God whose actions are in allegiance to God's will. This central thesis of Fear and Trembling - However,since there is no valid line of logic which says that morality can or should be suspended, it seems clear that ethical reasoning and faith are mutually exclusive states of consciousness. ATTACK ON HEGEL What most disturbed Kierkegaard, however, was the negative influence of Hegelianism upon the Christian religion. both reality and humans are incomplete and all philosophical systems imply completeness. He was equally critical of the Hegelian belief that God is an inherent part of human society and social morality. Kierkegaard saw God as being 'absolutely different' or 'wholly other' -- that which any human institution or achievement can never capture He vigorously attacks Hegel's belief in the supremacy of the rational mind by pointing out the fact that our mortal nature places definite limits on our understanding of reality. Because we are finite beings, we cannot possibly know or understand anything that is universal or infinite such as God, so we cannot know God exists, since that which transcends time simultaneously transcends human understanding.