Category: Kierkegaard
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Melum ut in pluribus
I am having trouble understanding the above Latin expression. I encountered it in Theodor Haecker, Kierkegaard the Cripple (tr. C. Van O. Bruyn, New York: Philosophical Library, 1950) in the passage: Not only for Augustine, but also for that Christian whose teaching is most perfectly harmonious, Thomas Aquinas, the evil in the world was always…
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Kierkegaard on Immortality
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An Overlooked Argument for the Resurrection
Michael J. Kruger In my jargon, the argument is rationally acceptable, but not rationally compelling (rationally coercive, philosophically dispositive). There is no getting around the fact that, in the end, you must decide what you will believe and how you will live. In the end: after due doxastic diligence has been exercised and all the…
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Hartmann on Kierkegaard
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A Quasi-Kierkegaardian Poke at Paglia, Catholic Pagan
This Stack leader has her stuck at the aesthetic stage. I'm on a Kierkegaard jag again. I've been reading him all my philosophical life ever since my undergraduate teacher, Ronda Chervin, introduced him to me. For an easy introduction to the Danish Socrates, I recommend Clare Carlisle, Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of…
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Notes on Kierkegaard and Truth
From a December, 1985 journal entry. …………………… Why does Søren Kierkegaard maintain that truth is subjectivity, and in the Danish equivalents of those very words? What could he mean by such a strange assertion? To rehearse the obvious: S. K. does not mean that truth is subjective or relative, varying with persons, places, times, perspectives,…
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Kierkegaard on the Impotence of Earthly Power
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The Decisive Difference between Kierkegaard and Nietzsche
Theodor Haecker, Journal in the Night (Pantheon, 1950, tr. Dru), #689, p. 212, written in 1944: The endless chatter about Nietzsche and Kierkegaard is quite hopeless. Outward similarities set up a superficial sphere of comparison that is utterly meaningless, for they are localised and limited by a decisive difference at a deeper level; the one prayed,…
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Kierkegaard on the Power and the Powerlessness of Earthly Power
The following passage from Concluding Unscientific Postscript embodies a penetrating insight: . . . the legal authority shows its impotence precisely when it shows its power: its power by giving permission, its impotence by not being able to make it permissible. (p. 460, tr. Swenson & Lowrie) My permitting you to do X does not…
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Nicolai Hartmann on Søren Kierkegaard and Competing Attitudes Toward Individuality
Although existentialist themes can be traced all the way back to Socrates and then forward through St. Augustine and Blaise Pascal, to mention only three pre-Kierkegaardian luminaries, Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) is rightly regarded as the father of existentialism. His worked proved to be seminal for that of Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, and Jean-Paul Sartre, to…
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Another Reason to Distinguish Sentences from Propositions
The ratio of sentences to thoughts in Kierkegaard's writing is quite poor. Compare the title of Concluding Scientific Postscript with the monstrous 'postscript' itself.
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Monastic Poverty: Too Easy?
The monk takes a vow of poverty, but he lives well, comfortably, securely, often amidst great natural beauty. The typical monk in the West is not poor materially but poor in a spiritual sense. Or at least he aspires to be such. The monastery's wealth is his usufruct — he has the usus et fructus,…
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Is Suggestibility Always Bad?
Belonging to a community of believers reinforces one in one's belief. If the belief is true and good, then so is the suggestibility that sustains and reinforces it. If we weren't suggestible, we wouldn't be teachable by that highest form of teaching, indirect teaching by example. As the Danish Socrates wrote, The essential sermon is…
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Soloveitchik on Proving the Existence of God
Joseph B. Soloveitchik's The Lonely Man of Faith (Doubleday 2006) is rich and stimulating and packed with insights. I thank Peter Lupu for having a copy sent to me. But there is a long footnote on p. 49 with which I heartily disagree. Here is part of it: The trouble with all rational demonstrations of the…
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A Quasi-Kierkegaardian Poke at Paglia
I have long enjoyed the writings of Camille Paglia. But while C. P. is a partial antidote to P. C., the arresting Miss Paglia does not quite merit a plenary MavPhil indulgence endorsement. One reason is because of what she says in the following excerpt from The Catholic Pagan: 10 Questions for Camille Paglia (via…