In Søren Kierkegaard’s book, “Philosophical Fragments” he first prefaces his writing by explaining his own inadequacy to do so. It is his desire to deliberate upon the actuality of truth and it’s application to the human existence, but in order to do so, he deemed it necessary to admit that “What is offered here is only a pamphlet...without any claim to being a part of the scientific-scholarly endeavor…” (Preface 1 IV 176). Near the end of his preface Kierkegaard, in efforts to convey his intent to write without bias, claims he will not share his opinion (IV 178). Upon establishing his character as a writer, Kierkegaard divulges into what he calls his “Thought Project” as is found in part one of “Philosophical Fragments. In this section he starts by contemplating if indeed truth can be learned, and bases a lot of his understanding and philosophical thought on the influences of socratic idealizations. Based upon this thought process, it is established “that all learning and seeking are but recollecting. Thus the ignorant person merely needs to be reminded...” (A.6-7 IV 180). Kierkegaard then further expounds upon the processes of learning in order to establish a foundation for his “Thought Process” pertaining to the teacher and the follower. According to kierkegaard, “The teacher is to be the occasion that reminds the learner, he cannot assist him to recollect that he actually does know the truth, for the learner is indeed untruth” (B. b. 25 IV 184). So in saying this it
I. Soeren Kierkegaard, a famous theologian of the 19th Century, wrote Fear and Trembling in 1843 in response to Hegelianism. Kierkegaard takes on the pseudonymous role of Jonannes de Silentio and speaks on modern peoples' attitudes toward doubt and faith. He believes humans are creatures entrenched in reason and doubt but not in the same sense as Descartes, a French mathematician, scientist and philosopher. Descartes doubted everything he had ever learned; his way of thinking is called hyperbolic or Cartesian doubt. According to his philosophy, within the world of ideas there is clearance sale; everybody has a shop
After meticulously analyzing the relationship between students and teachers, Freire came to a grim conclusion, claiming “Education is suffering from narration sickness” (57). Already, in the first paragraph, Freire gets straight to his work’s purpose. He defines this sickness as the loss of knowledge coming from the verbal sharing of information. When a teacher narrates information to students, the students lose the ability to truly learn what the teacher is teaching. Without the experience received from answering a question themselves, it is impossible for a student to genuinely understand a concept.
John also discovers that knowledge does not guarantee prosperity saying,”And yet not all they did was well done…their wisdom could not but grow until all was peace.” The narrator realizes that knowledge does not guarantee prosperity. The gods were very wise, yet their civilization still did not survive. This is new truth that the narrator learns. John discovers the truths that even when he returns home, he says,”it is better that truth should come little by little.” Integrating truths into the existing knowledge is difficult and tumultuous process. It can cause great stress and prompt instability in a society. Therefore, according to John, it should be introduced little by little. John’s father say,”Truth is a hard deer to hunt…. You may die of the truth.” The father of the narrator is saying that truth is hard to find and harder to reconcile with existing knowledge. He is also
I belief that saying that a person can be taught to have knowledge is the same as saying a person who already beliefs in a topic or subject has a opinion. Which we know that opinion can be taught, but so can knowledge because you are teaching an opinion that soon will become a piece of information in a person's mind and that is what the definition is for knowledge. In other words, by learning an Opinion then they also will be receiving knowledge. Again like Socrates explains what Daedalus had told him about how we all will always have knowledge but our true opinion can be lost and maybe never be thought again. For a true opinion to stay in our minds we need to practice and think about the idea or a fact and turn it into an argument.
In Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard differentiates between the subject as the knower, and the world (object) as the known: the only way we know the world is through ourselves. Kierkegaard emphasizes the importance of "how" the subject is related to the truth,
Kinsey spent most of his time researching and studying sex that he did not have time for his wife. He began having sexual affairs with children and experimented to deepen his studies and knowledge about sexual behaviors. “Kinsey's work has been instrumental in advancing acceptance of pornography, homosexuality, abortion, and condom-based sex
Kierkegaard’s position on faith is represented with the Knight of infinite resignation and the Knight of faith. The Knight of faith is regarded as the one who believes in that which is absurd. For, he is the knight that is able to believe in the things that are
There is no philosophical individual if there is no leap towards word of mouth. Kierkegaard exemplifies such mocking rhapsodies in his piece “Fear and Trembling”. Scattered within are multiple insults shot at individuals whom he wills deserving of it. Breezily crucifying ill-mannered beliefs, and rendering hopeless their application, Kierkegaard makes his first deprecatory stop at the gate of objective and speculative philosophy. Objective thinkers are swerved by Kierkegaard as he states “ When a cellar-dweller plays this game everyone thinks it is ridiculous...ridiculous for the greatest man in the world to do it.” (Kierkegaard 32). A conclusion can be drawn that the philosopher sees objective values as a tool with which existence can be understood an incorrect and confusing fantasy for “who is to write or complete such a system ?” (Kierkegaard 29). Declaring the objective thinkers self-equating of one to the whole, a method attainable by any man and comical in his eyes. His criticism of the aforementioned scholars doesn 't stop here as he follows with a like-minded observation of objective Christianity. He preludes that individuals seeking to understand Christianity through objective evidence, are not true believers for “ Herein lies the scholar’s exalted equanimity as well as the comedy of his parrot-like pedantry.” (Kierkegaard 34) The man who attains faith in this manner must remain mindful of the dragon at the door which waits to devour it (Kierkegaard 35). Kierkegaard
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the meaning of subjectivity of truth was another point of contention. Hegel derived his opinion from history, noting that each successive generation changed where their knowledge came from thus making it’s origin fluid and unabsolute. Kierkegaard derived his opinion from within, another point of existentialism, and thought that truth was something an individual must discuss from within and be wholly passionate with the decision. Nevertheless, both resulted in the conclusion that truth is not absolute, but Hegel regarded the Truths of humanity with prominence, while Kierkegaard conversely regarded the truths of an individual as much more
Starting with Kierkegaard, it is best to understand that he has a deep fulfillment to God and that he feels is the absolute. This absolute is to live in the realm of a paradox and that paradox is proving the existence of God and experiencing it for yourself. To understand this is to go through the different stages, of aesthetic, moral and religious. The aesthetic is all about the individual and focuses on oneself as an individual. The moral is having to be antagonistic towards yourself in
Kierkegaard believed that subjective reflection was the key understanding meaning in life. He kind of complains with the objective reflection stating that it is impersonal and an indifferent relation to existence. As a matter of fact, this terminology as I shall call it, defines just what the objective world and objective reflection is: being independent of any human subjectivity. Subjective reflection naturally focuses on human existence in a personal, inward way without 'detachment' as Kierkegaard put it.
In this essay, I will try to summarize, analyze and discuss several pages of Søren Kierkegaard’s Training in Christianity. I will try to focus on his approach to sacred history, a general Christian history and Christianity, which he discusses in this work in relation to faith in God. In other parts of this essay I will attempt also to relate these pages of his work to some key ideas of Kierkegaard’s theology and philosophy and support this with some concrete quotations from the text. In the end I will very briefly compare different philosophies of Hegel and Kierkegaard and try to relate Kierkegaard’s work to a few topics, which
Both philosophers also agree that the individual is more important than the group. Kierkegaard says that "a crowd in its very concept is the untruth." The crowd can only hinder the individual by making him irresponsible and hiding the
Our lives are build out of experiences. Depending on where we live, what we are going through, or our state of mind, we build our personal lives by making some concessions and adjustments in order to cope with others. In the play GHOST by Henrik Ibsen, Mrs. Alving and Pastor Manders are two characters whose stories differ because of secrets, misunderstandings, and masquerade.
Kierkegaard's works are not straightforward proclamations of his philosophy: he wrote under pseudonyms and assumed the persona of these fictional characters in his writing. Thus, one must be careful when attributing a particular position to Kierkegaard -- often the view is advanced by a pseudonym, so various inferential processes must be applied in order to substantiate a claim that Kierkegaard really meant any statement.