A Short Post on Kierkegaard (more to come)

Kierkegaard grew up and was educated in a society dominated by the main-stream thought of Hegelian philosophy.  Much of his ideas seem to coincide decently with Hegel’s, though there are some points against which he argues.  In sections of his work, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, (particularly section II chapter 2 on subjective truth) Kierkegaard argues that objective truths cannot guide one to knowledge of what he finds fundamentally important: God.  Hegel’s metaphysical arguments for the dynamics of relationship place the subject, the “self,” as the important over the object, which he generally classifies as “the slave.”  However, Kierkegaard maintains that a relationship with a dynamic being cannot be reduced to objectivity, as both the subject and “object” are really subjects in both lights. 

For Kierkegaard, the knowing subject relates himself to his relation to truth; yet, truth is not an object for Kierkegaard, but outside of the Hegelian system.  Truth, rather, is achieved when the self relates itself to what it thinks to be true, and then ascribes actions based on this.  The self must commit itself to what it believes to be true, and whether it is objectively true is neither provable nor objective. 

The best example Keirkegaard gives for this set of metaphysical ideas is found in the second chapter of section II, in which he discusses the relationship between the self and knowledge of the existence of God.  Though one may never know objectively the truth of God’s existence, one may do so subjectively; in order for this to be subjectively true, the self must understand his relation with God subjectively, and the truth of this is understood when one makes it true for one’s own life by committing oneself indefinitely to living and believing that God exists in truth.  Truth, understood this way subjectively, is just what Kierkegaard calls it, a “paraphrasing of faith.”  His theories, however, are not what would be classified as relativism or subjectivism, but rather an inner understanding of subjective truths which cannot be understood or guided objectively.