Philosophical Fragments
It was the second of three works written under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus; the other two were De omnibus dubitandum est in 1841 and Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments in 1846.[4] He referred to a quote from Plato's Hippias Major in his Postscript to Philosophical Fragments: "But I must ask you Socrates, what do you suppose is the upshot of all this?However, he added his own name as the person responsible for publication of Philosophical Fragments, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, The Sickness Unto Death and Practice in Christianity.Philosophical Fragments p. 29-30, 32 (See Works of Love, Hong 1995 p. 367-368) Analogy: whoever believes that there is a God and also a providence has an easier time (in preserving the faith), an easier time in definitely gaining the faith (and not an illusion) in an imperfect world, where passion is kept vigilant, than in an absolutely perfect world.But first at any rate he must will it.for he forges the chains of his bondage with the strength of his freedom, since he exists in it without compulsion; and thus his bonds grow strong, and all his powers unite to make him the slave of sin.For the moment he forgets him he sinks back again into himself, just as one who while in original possession of the condition forgot that God exists, and thereby sank into bondage.When the Pharisee, “in order to justify himself,” asked, “Who is my neighbor?” he presumably thought that this might develop into a very protracted inquiry, so that it would perhaps take a very long time and then perhaps end with the admission that it was impossible to define the concept “neighbor” with absolute accuracy – for this very reason he asked the question, to find an escape, to waste time, and to justify himself.That is because such people are very close to the truth, and they feel the eternal validity of the personality not in its blessing but in its torment, even if they have retained this totally abstract expression for the joy in it; that they prefer to go on being themselves.The reason, however, it may seem to an individual as if he could be changed continually and yet remain the same, as if his innermost being were an algebraic symbol that could signify anything whatever it is assumed to be, is that he is in a wrong position, that he has not chosen himself, does not have a concept of it, and yet there is in his folly an acknowledgment of the eternal validity of his personality."[nb 7] Kierkegaard explores how a contemporary of Christ and succeeding generations receive the "condition" necessary to understand the Paradox that God has permitted himself to be born and wrapped in swaddling-clothes.When Socrates believed that God is, he held fast the objective uncertainty with the entire passion of inwardness, and faith is precisely in this contradiction, in this risk.The reasons of a Hume may be ever so cogent, and the refutations of them only assumptions and doubts; thus faith gains and loses equally with the cleverest pettifogger and most honorable attorney.one may be sure that this will create a tremendous sensation, and give occasion for the writing of folios; for this counterfeit earnestness, which asks whether so-and-so is trustworthy instead of whether the inquirer himself has faith, is an excellent mask for spiritual indolence, and for town gossip on a European scale—if the credibility of such a witness is to have any significance it must be with respect to the historical fact.Therefore it was good that the work was a psychological inquiry, which in itself makes clear that sin cannot find a place in the system, presumably just like immortality, faith, the paradox, and other such concepts that essentially related to existing, just what systematic thinking ignores.[30] Kierkegaard was responding to Hegelian writers such as Ludwig Feuerbach and David Strauss who emphasized the objective nature of God.It is a faith without icons, images, stories, and myths, without miracles, without a resurrection, without a nativity, without Chartres and Fra Angelico, without wine and wafers, without heaven and hell, without God as judge and without judgment.With philosophical conceptualization, the Trinity is reduced to Kant's categories of Universality (God the father) Particularity (Christ the Son) and Individuality (The Holy Spirit).From Hegel to Existentialism, By Robert C. Solomon, Oxford University Press US, 1989 p. 61[37]Eduard Geismar gave a seminar about the religious thought of Kierkegaard in 1933.[disambiguation needed] From Socrates he has learned to keep the reader at a distance, to throw him back on his individual responsibility, to compel him to find his own way to a solution.In fact, he is a Christian who is not willing to let himself be enclosed in the system and who, against Hegel's "intellectualism," asserts unrelentingly the irreducibility and the specificity of what is lived.Thus Kierkegaard is led to champion the cause of pure, unique subjectivity against the objective universality of essence, the narrow, passionate intransigence of the immediate life against the tranquil mediation of all reality, faith, which stubbornly asserts itself, against scientific evidence – despite the scandal.And yet, with all the fragmentary nature of literature, we find thousand fold repetition; which shows how limited is man's mind and destiny.That is the reason why the Bible will never lose its power; because, as long as the world lasts, no one can stand up and say: I grasp it as a whole and understand all the parts of it."This is the stumbling-block in Christianity: that revelation, the divine manifestation-that is, eternal truth and everlasting salvation-has to be connected with the fact which took place once for all, or,-it amounts to the same thing-that we can never approach God directly but only through the Mediator.University of Pennsylvania Professor Louis H. Mackey described Johann Climacus' point of view in his 1971 book Kierkegaard: A Kind of Poet (p. 164): "Climacus’ point in the Philosophical Fragments is that Christianity, which came into the world as a Miracle, ever remains a mystery beyond comprehension and imagination, intelligible only to a faith that is itself miraculous and God-given.This, you see, is why it is so hard for individuals to choose themselves, because the absolute isolation here is identical with the most profound continuity, because as long as one has not chosen oneself there seems to be a possibility of one way or another of becoming something different.Either/Or Part II p. 217-219In Fragments Climacus makes clear that he means to give the Danish term for belief, Tro, a double sense."In the most eminent sense" it will refer to the Christian's faith, his capacity to believe against reason and the awful paradox of God's entry into time through Christ.Kierkegaard, by Josiah Thompson, Alfred A. Knopf, 1973, p. 173 (See p. 170-180))Indeed, from what does that confusion of thoughtlessness come but from this, that the individual's thought ventures, observing, out into life, wants to survey the whole of existence, that play of forces that only God in heaven can view calmly, because in his providence he governs it with wise and omniscient purpose, but which weakens a human being's mind and makes him mentally deranged, causes him misplaced care, and strengthens with regrettable consolation.Misplaced care, namely in mood, because he worries about so much; regrettable consolation, namely in slack lethargy, when his contemplation has so many entrances and exits that it eventually wanders.
Dialectic of EnlightenmentSøren KierkegaardDanishDenmarkThree Upbuilding Discourses, 1844PrefacesphilosophicalpseudonymDe omnibus dubitandum estConcluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical FragmentsWalter LowrieJohannes ClimacusChristian monkDavid F. SwensonLee Milton HollanderPlato'sHippias MajorThree Upbuilding DiscoursesGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelKarl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelprefacediscoursesTwo Upbuilding DiscoursesSocratesdoctrine of recollectionignoranceEnlightenmentcounter-Enlightenmentunderstoodcategorythis agePhilosophersHistoriansSextus EmpiricusProtagorasAncient Greek philosophymodern medicineinner goods of the SpiritbondagefreedomTeacherSaviourRedeemerAtonementguiltySaint PaulAndrea MeldollaNew Birthnon-beingfirst birthequalitybecomingEither/OrReasonUnknownabsurdhistoricalunderstandexistenceessencenecessarydisciplechoosescertaintynegateduncertaintyBaptismChristianitydecisiondeliberatingdoctrineJohann Georg HamannMunchausenfear and tremblingteleologicallyanxietyHans Lassen MartensenSocialismindividualityLudwig FeuerbachDavid Straussdivine revelationasceticindividualisticmysticismDavid Humemiracleexistence or essenceMiguel de UnamunosortierationalsupernaturalismChartresFra AngelicoNietzscheRobert C. SolomonpassionsystematicobjectivesciencepossibilityJean-Paul SartreHegelianintellectbad faithsituationintellectualismJean WahlDialecticalMarxismTime MagazineJohann GoetheEmile, or On EducationPaul TillichNeo-orthodoxChristian existentialistExistentialistTheologianswho Jesus waspersonEmil BrunnerThomas MertonTrappist MonkParrhesiaLouis H. MackeyUniversity of Tasmania