Kierkegaard - Complete Flashcards
What is Kierkegaard’s critique of Hegel about?
It is a critique of the relationship between detailed perceptual reality and the nature of abstract concepts.
Why should a philosopher not work in concepts?
According to Kierkegaard, working in concepts often overlooks the details of things.
What is the fault with Hegel looking at reality through concepts?
You cannot get all of the concepts around it to capture reality, for reality is endless.
Kierkegaard on the creator of reality
God is the creator of reality. For the creator of reality must be someone who is outside of existence and yet in existence, who is in his eternity forever complete, and yet includes all existence within himself.
What is the difference between Hegel and Kierkegaard’s approach to ‘reality’ and what it is?
Hegel approaches reality making charts with all the different parts of reality on it.
Kierkegaard takes a more existentialist approach - he is aware of his finity as a human being and is searching for meaning in the world - a search for authenticity..
What are Kierkegaard’s three lifetyles?
- Aesthetic.
- Ethical.
- Religious.
What does Kierkegaards ‘Aesthetic’ lifestyle entail?
A sensation-based orientation.
Focus towards the physical world.
Meaning derived from experiencing sensory pleasures.
What does Kierkegaards ‘Ethical’ lifestyle entail?
- Reason-based
- Guided morally by rules, regulations, commandments, etc.
What does Kierkegaard’s ‘Religious’ lifestyle entail?
Looking inward as far as possible to experience the absolute basis of oneself.
What is a quote about hope from Kierkegaard’s ‘Aesthetic’ lifestyle?
“It is impossible to live artistically before one has made up one’s mind to abandon hope…”
What
“You.”
What is Kierkegaard’s example of enjoying something accidental from the ‘Aesthetic’ lifetsyle?
A man who, at every opportunity, would begin a philosophical lecture. He would sweat copiously when talking. It would gather on his brow then run down to the tip of his nose. From this moment all changed and you took pleasure in his philosophical lectures, merely to observe the sweat on his brow and at the end of his nose.
The sweat is something totally irrelevant to what the man is trying to communicate, there is a self-serving aesthetic pleasure to it - with a mocking kind of angle.
Give four examples of Kierkegaards ‘Aesthetic’ lifestyle.
- attending to fine art (museums, art criticism etc).
- Manipulating people (without their knowledge). (e.g. Kierkegaards example of the seducer).
- Appreciates sensory qualities of moment.
- Avoids commitments to other people, remain independent, free to enjoy sensory world.
