Group Timed Writing 35 students

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Group Timed Writing (3-5 students)

• 1. In general, whats going on in Philosophical
  Fragments, or what is it about?
• 2. Which part did you find most interesting and
  why? Explain the central argument of this part?

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Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

• Life
• Writings
• Journals Papers 20 volumes
• Collected Works 20 Volumes
• Father of Existentialism
• Wrote for that individual

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Kierkegaards Writings

• Early Academic and Polemic writings From the
  Papers of One Still Living (1838), The Concept of
  Irony with Constant Reference to Socrates (1841)
• The Authorship Proper
• The Pseudonymous Works (aesthetic
  productivity) Either/Or, Fear and Trembling,
  The Concept of Anxiety, Concluding Unscientific
  Postscript
• The Veronymous Works (religious productivity)
  Edifying Discourses, Christian Discourses, Works
  of Love
• Posthumous Works The Point of View for My Work
  as an Author

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Reading Kierkegaard

• Task to make difficulties everywhere
• The problem of pseudonymity
• Existential truth and indirect communication
• The thing is to find a truth which is truth for
  me, to find that idea for which I want to live
  and die. (Papers, 1835)
• Only the truth which edifies is truth for you.
  (Either/Or, 1843)
• Truth is subjectivity. (Concluding Unscientific
  Postscript, 1845)
• Central problem What does it mean to become a
  Christian?

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Philosophical Fragments (1844)

• By Johannes Climacus
• Edited by S. Kierkegaard
• Questions
• Can a historical point of departure be given for
  an eternal consciousness how can such a point of
  departure be of more than historical interest
  can an eternal happiness be built on historical
  knowledge?
• Epigraph Preface
• I Though-Project
• Can the truth be Learned?

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What is Truth?

• Were asking about essential truth, i.e., truth
  that is essentially related to an existing human
  being.
• This truth is ethical-religious truth.
• What are the two different perspectives on the
  truth described in Philosophical Fragments?

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Can the truth be learned?

• Socratic view
• Eternal Truth is innate
• Learning involves Recollection
• Teacher as midwife
• Any point of departure in time is accidental

• A Different View
• Eternal Truth comes into existence in time
• Learner is outside of the truth and lacks the
  condition for receiving the truth
• Teacher must transform learner and provide the
  condition, such a teacher is a savior
• The moment in time has decisive significance.

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Is what is elaborated here thinkable?

• a. The Preceding State
• Untruth Sin
• b. The Teacher
• God Savior Deliverer Judge
• c. The Follower
• Conversion Repentance Rebirth

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• II. The God as Teacher and Savior (A Poetical
  Venture)
• On Gods Love and Suffering
• III. The Absolute Paradox (A Metaphysical
  Caprice)
• The passion of thought, to discover what cannot
  be thought
• Godthe Unknown

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The Folly of Existence Proofs

• Generally one reasons from existence, not to it
  (e.g., a stone, a criminal)
• Against the Ontological Argument
• Existence is presupposed and I simply develop the
  content of my conception (or ideality)
• Against the Teleological Argument
• Do works prove existence?
• What are the gods works?...Do we not encounter
  the most terrible spiritual trials here? (42)

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How does Gods existence emerge from the proof?
The Leap of Faith

• Attempt to prove
• Subject is engaged/ attached to the proof
• Premises
• No existence

• Proof
• Subject is disengaged/ detached
• Conclusion
• Existence

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Faith begins where thinking leaves off.

• The Unknown
• The limit, frontier, border of reason, no
  distinguishing mark other than the absolutely
  different
• The Absolute Paradox
• We cannot understand God because he is absolutely
  different, yet we understand him as absolutely
  different
• The God-Man (Jesus Christ)
• God makes himself altogether like me, so that I
  can understand him, but I cannot understand him,
  because I am absolutely unlike him.

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Appendix Offense at the Paradox (An Acoustical
Illusion)

• The understanding thinks it produces the echo
  of offense, but it comes from the paradox, which
  is an offense to reason.
• All offense is suffering, which comes into
  existence with the paradox, in the moment.
• The understandings relation to the paradox can
  be either unhappy (offense) or happy
  (Faithpassion).

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IV. The Situation of the Contemporary Follower

• Because of the nature of the paradox, absolute
  historical knowledge is impossible. God cannot be
  known directly.
• Faith is required as much for the contemporary
  follower as for the follower at second hand, and
  the condition for faith must come from the God
  himself.
• Thus to be an immediate contemporary with the
  God-man can only serve as an occasion for
  historical knowledge or receiving the condition.
  In other words, theres no advantage in immediate
  contemporaneity.

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Interlude Is the Past More Necessary than the
Future?

• Or, Has the Possible, by Having Become Actual,
  Become More Necessary than It Was?
• the Interlude represents the passage of 1843
  yearsDoes this change anything?
• The answer to all these questions is NO.
• To think otherwise would be a misunderstandingnec
  essity and coming-into-existence belong to
  distinct conceptual worlds.

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Appendix Application

• Let us return to our assumption that God has
  beenwhich is not a direct historical fact but a
  self-contradiction.
• That this is a historical fact is a matter for
  faith
• In the ordinary sense of belief
• In the wholly eminent sense, whereby in asserting
  to Gods having been one makes it historical and
  brings it into existence.

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V. The Follower at Second Hand

• The basic thesis is this there is no follower at
  second hand the first generation and the second
  generation are essentially alike regarding their
  relation to the paradox.
• Climacus discusses differences and similarities
  with contemporary followers.
• The first generation of followers would perhaps
  have an advantage in becoming aware of the
  moment, but awareness isnt partial to faith as
  offense is also possible.

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What about the latest generation of followers?

• Is the God having been more probable now? Has the
  paradox been changed retroactively?
• Has it been naturalized?
• Can one be born with faith (i.e., born a
  Christian)?
• This is all nonsense and lunacy.
• Towards the Postscript (109)
• The Moral

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Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the
Philosophical Fragments (1845)

• By Johannes Climacus
• Edited by S. Kierkegaard
• Goals
• to make things more difficult
• To clothe the issue in PF in its historical
  costume, i.e., Christianity
• What is the central thesis of the reading?
• Truth is subjectivity.
• Thus, the issue is not about the truth of
  Christianity, but about how individuals relation
  to this doctrine

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On the Differences between Objective and
Subjective Truth

• Objective truth focuses on the What
• Involves approximation (getting closer)
• Reflection is directed outward, indifferent to
  subject

• Subjective truth focuses on the How
• Involves appropriation (making something ones
  own, living what one believes)
• Reflection is directed inward, importance of
  subject

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Climacuss Definition of Truth

• An objective uncertainty held fast in an
  appropriation-process of the most passionate
  inwardness is the truth (319).
• This is equivalent to faith.
• The objective uncertainty involves risk that
  keeps one out upon the deep, over seventy
  thousand fathoms of water (320).

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Other Issues and Problems

• According to Climacus, where is there more
  truthpraying to the true God in a false spirit,
  or praying to a false God in the true spirit?
  (317)
• Is suicide the only practical consequence of
  objective thinking? (315)
• Is Socrates a Christian? (318)
• Is subjectivity equivalent to madness? (313)
• When you think about it, isnt this notion of
  subjective truth really, really dangerous?

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Faith by Richard Taylor

• Defense of Humes claim that Christianity is
  founded on faith, not reason.
• Faith and reason are completely separate.
• Why does a Christian belief?
• Wrong question
• The Christian cannot help it. Faith is a gift
  from God, an involuntary conviction.
• Faith is not
• An assumption, mere tenacity, or a creed

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Faith and Reason by Michael Scriven

• Scriven attacks the idea of faith and reason
  being two separate faculties, each with its own
  kind of truth.
• Faith normally means confidence, which is not
  incompatible with reason.
• Thus to speak of faith as an alternative to
  reason is odd.
• All beliefs need evidence! In general (339-340).

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Faith is not another path to truth.

• Faith is not justified by
• Strong feelings
• Agreement with others
• Nor is faith on an equal par with science
• Conclusion, p. 342

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• What did you make of Robert Merrihew Adams
  article Kierkegaards Arguments against
  Objective Reasoning in Religion?