Who Is Kierkegaard's Pertinence To Psychology?

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” Lets go back to when men valued thought, for they valued its effect on the world, lets go back and take a look at the father of Christian Existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard. Søren Kierkegaard was born to a father who inflicted strict and rigorous religious teaching upon his children. His father felt this was necessary because of his sinful habit that resulted in an affair with his 1st wife’s maid. Kierkegaard, after a broken engagement with his love, was handed over to a life of severe melancholy. Yet as a result of both his personal pain and brilliant mind, a literary life few could surpass, and wisdom of thought (does that make sense) ensued.

Once the reality of the self is solidified, the next question is of what to do, or of ethics. George Stack argues that, to Kierkegaard, by choosing the ethical, people have begun to create themselves (Stack 145). Therefore it is within the logical progression for Kierkegaard to describe ethics next. As Kierkegaard examines the story of Abraham and Isaac, he illustrates issues of morality and ethics as he attempts to defend faith. Kierkegaard addresses the ethical problem of the story in the form of his four "Problematas", where Kierkegaard defines the ethical as "the universal, and as the universal it applies to everyone" (83). When one goes outside of the universal, he sins (83). Throughout Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard discusses, through the person of Johannes de Silentio, ethical questions regarding Abraham's relationship with God as well as his relationship with Sarah. These questions are the questions that Kierkegaard uses to illustrate what faith in modernity looks like, and without these ethical problems there would be no springboard for which Kierkegaard could jump into his concept of

Thus he finds comfort in Kierkegaard’s theory because it suggests that his misery is a sign of the

We as individuals ordinarily go through life looking at life through our own views of how things should be grounded on our own worldviews. While, a worldview is how a person views the world and the theories that they personally have of the world. Nevertheless, Entwistle provides a fresh outlook for the observer on how psychology is integrated into our worldviews, as a source of guidance and faith. In addition, this is addressed on theology in which, the bible stems from. I found the assimilation of psychology and theology that the author provides, to be essential in assisting individuals with a variety of issues. For some individuals this can be a challenge, being that some Christians have a hard time with integrating

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

A religious experience, which could also be interpreted as a mystical experience due to the lack of objective understanding, could be a type of subjective experience that is strengthened through blind faith. On one side, religious experience may exist in order to defend one’s self against the ‘corrupting’ influence of rationalism and on the other side, religious experience could be an inert feeling that carries the moral of every person. One may say that rationalism protects one’s self against psychosis as well as sinning while the other might say that it is only religious experience that can protect one from delusion and sin. William James and Sigmund Freud offer competing views on the specifics of religious experience and the capabilities of as well as limits of the human knowledge in attempting to understand the ‘religious.’ In terms of whether the religious experience is exclusive or rare or not, James believed that men have a religious appetite, and when this religious appetite is insufficient to allow a person to be faithful, then men seek satisfaction through philosophy and logic though when exclusively sought out for then the man becomes eccentric and exceptional (James 2-5). James claims that scientific judgment alone cannot completely embrace religion and nor can spiritual judgment (James 5). He says that it is with the combination of the two that a clearer

Hegel’s and Kierkegaard's philosophies can be attributed to the Romantic influences of the late eighteenth century. Each were also opposed to their predecessor; aspects of Romanticism were criticized by Hegel, while Kierkegaard had a negative disposition to Hegel’s ideas as he deemed them inapplicable to one’s personal life. In Sophie’s World, Hegel’s “world spirit” is described as “the sum of human utterances.” In the same context, Kierkegaard’s existentialism is described as “the only important thing [is] each man’s ‘own existence.” It is also worth noting, though Kierkegaard rebuked Hegelianism, the man himself was dead a decade before Kierkegaard was thirty years old, so it could not be said the two men were direct contemporaries.

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

Nothing captivates mankind more than the exploration of purpose. Of all the difficulties man faces, the most elusive is defining what it means to be human. It seems that no two philosophers have the same answer, but that does not stop man from seeking one. The philosophy that appears most appropriate for the charge is existentialism, whose primary concern is questioning the purpose for human existence. Two of the most ardent existentialist philosophers are Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Both see the established idea of man as something to be challenged and overcome. They have attempted to set aside all assumptions and concentrate on defining the reason that man exists in the world. Despite their

In his work Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard suggests that there could be a teleological suspension of the ethical. This paper attempts to disprove that suggestion. Throughout Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard provides multiple examples that highlight the existence of the teleological suspension of the ethical, faith. However, in each instance, the right analysis can turn his examples into cases of the universal or particular.

The truth of subjectivity was a reference to Christianity for Kierkegaard. His argument was that the only way that you can understand and know the truth about Christianity is from a personal subjective standpoint and not by objective analysis. He admits that it is ineffective to find the truth about Christianity through historical analysis because no matter how many times you try to look at it objectively, the result will only be an educated guess and not the ultimate truth.

Kierkegaard points out human being to be spirit. He further clarifies that this spirit is encompassed in the self. He further elucidates that the self is the relationship that relates itself to itself. This means that this relating itself to itself is what defines self. This relationship that relates itself to the self must have been established by itself or something else within the boundaries of the self. The relation he further notes is the third term that has established the entire relation. Human self is thus the relation that relates to itself and in relating to itself relates to something else. This self is what defines personality or individuality. We have self because of the consciousness we humans have of ourselves. According to Kierkegaard, we can only relate to this self if we are aware of ourselves and have the capacity to relate to self-consciousness. This self, according to Kierkegaard, is what make us go for selection and making choices.

Alexander Pope is an eighteenth century writer who spent most of his life suffering. He had a rare form of tuberculosis which left him in constant pain. As a result of this disease, he never grew very tall. He was only about four and a half feet tall and he also experienced migraines (Greenblatt 2714). Despite all of Pope’s impediments, he managed to write Essay on Man which portrays an extremely optimistic outlook on life. Although Pope says that he “avoids all specifically Christian doctrines,” it is doubtful that he would have this same optimistic outlook without his Christian upbringing (2714). Even though Pope’s Essay on Man is universal, applying to Christian and

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

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.