Studied by 116 people
nonrational
irra
nonrational: to acknowledge that human reason can’t solve all problems/ has its limits. In the leap of faith, Kierkegaard exercises the nonrational options
irrational: drawing conclusions without evidence
rational: drawing conclusions with sufficient evidence
Dialectical
Conflicts create progress
Thesis + antithesis
Hegel: dialectical method: how everything works
Homo faber
Man the maker/creator
Marx (capitalism) (alienation)
Homo faber: man the maker/creator. When you feel like a cog and wheel of the assembly line (KM), alienated from nature (homo faber)
Master and Slave
Hegel
If there is no slave there is no master
Transition of power → movements of power are constantly changing and cycling
Master’s position is determined by slave
Master: thesis
Slave: antithesis
Original Sin
We are all born with an innate sin (inherited from Adam and Eve)
Problem of Evil
How can God be real if evil things are happening in the world (innocents are suffering)
Zeitgeist
The spirit of the age
An expression of the Weltgeist, but contextualized in your particular place in human history
Soren Kierkegaard
Danish philosopher (1813-1855) who critiqued traditional Christianity and emphasized subjective truth and personal relationship with God.
Died at age 42
Lived entire life in copenhagen denmark (save for two trips)
Spent a year in berlin, bestie was Hans Christian Anderson
Made one trip to sweden
Mentally crippled by guilt instilled by his father and the faith
His father once uttered a blashphemous expression condemning god, and he slept with the maid of the house and was then forced to marry her because she got pregnant
One of 7 children
Father said that all his children would die before age 34, because the father had committed acts of blasphemy
34 age jesus died
5 of Kierkegaard’s siblings died before 34
Only Soren and his brother peter survived after 34, but soren died at 42
Never married, broke off two engagements, thought being married would get in the way of his pursuit to be a Christian
Inherited some wealth that allowed him to pursue his life as a writer
Had kyphosis
A condition where you have a hump on your back (hunchback)
Aesthetic Lifestyle
A lifestyle devoted to pleasure
Devoted to pleasure, requires constant switching to prevent boredom, akin to the rotation of crops.
Ethical Lifestyle
A life of doing one's moral duty and abiding by a set of objective moral rules and principles
Religious Lifestyle
A passionate, subjective choice to commit yourself to God in whatever way God requires
An inward transformation
Had a really intense dislike of people who outwardly professed their faith
Rotation of Crops
Concept of switching activities to prevent boredom, a key idea in aesthetic lifestyles.
Abraham Story
Illustrates the difference between ethical and religious life, emphasizing obedience over moral principles.
Imprimatur
Seal of approval for a correct Bible translation by the Catholic Church, critiqued by Kierkegaard for controlling religion.
Subjectivity
The highest task for every human being, willing to become subjective
A truth is subjective if it is true to you
Emphasis on personal relationship with God and individual experience, a key aspect in Kierkegaard's philosophy.
Focus on individual perspectives and choices in existentialism.
Leap of Faith
Passionate belief in God despite objective uncertainty, a central concept in Kierkegaard's existentialism.
Objective Uncertainty
Facing a world of moral mess and dehumanization, questioning how to bridge the gap to faith, a challenge for Kierkegaard.
Idealism
A metaphysical theory that posits ideas and thoughts as the only real entities in the world
Rationalism
Epistemological stance rejecting Kant and emphasizing the role of reasoning in understanding the world
Rationalisms metaphysical system is idealism
Weltgeist
The rational principle governing the world according to Hegel
World Spirit
Alienation
The state of being isolated or disconnected from a group or activity one should belong to
We can only see others objectively
Capitalism
Economic system leading to alienation, especially in feeling like a mere cog in a corporate machine
Social alienation
Feeling ostracized or disconnected from society, leading to anguish and despair
One side: you self alienate through bad faith
Other side: you cannot self alienate because there is no faith
Nature
Increasingly explained by science, leading to questions about humanity's place in a mechanistic world
Self-alienation
Doubt about one's identity and existence, a key concept in existentialist thought
Bad Faith
The denial that you are totally free and totally responsible pure possibility, of free will
To be in bad faith is to be alienated from who you are, because who you are is pure possibility, and to think you are not is bad faith
Denial of one's freedom and responsibility, leading to self-alienation
Denial of pure possibility and free will, focusing on taking responsibility.
Theistic Existentialists
Philosophers like Tillich and Dostoyevsky advocating worship of a higher power
Kierkegaard also applies
Toothache
Symbolizing the existentialist choice of irrationality over reason, emphasizing free will
discussed by Dostoevsky
Modernism
Cultural movement marked by faith in progress, reason, industrialization, and urbanization
Phenomenological approach
Focuses on how experiences appear to consciousness and influence emotions and actions
Sense based philosophers
Don't say real or not real, what's important is the life I am living
My experiences are unique to me, and therefore it has its reality in my consciousness
Refuse to get into the disputes of appearance vs reality, idealism, etc
Interested in the world as it appears to me
Existential Crisis
The condition of human beings, singly or in groups, experience a traumatic event or a traumatic condition which is urgent and provokes feelings of anxiety, fear, dread, anguish, despair, abandonment or terror.
Traumatic events provoking feelings of anxiety, fear, and despair, leading to an existential crisis
Not a neurosis but a human condition involving repressing or obsessing about death.
Repression
Psychological timebomb that must be addressed.
Folk Psychology
Common understanding of psychological processes, not reliable in academic research.
Ex post facto
having retroactive effect or force
changes consequences of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed before rule
Deductive Argument
Claims the conclusion is necessarily true based on logic.
Inductive Argument
Claims the conclusion's probability and likelihood increase with accumulating evidence.
Agency
Accepting one's power to act with consequences, opposite of determinism.
Angst
Deep fearfulness when contemplating death, basis for agency and free will.
Free Will
Metaphysical libertarianism asserting the possibility of choice and responsibility.
Nihilism
Belief that life has no inherent meaning or cosmic significance.
Objective vs subjective
Distinguishing between objective and subjective values in existentialist philosophy.
Existentialists
focus on the subjective value
Unsystematic
Contradictory by nature
No logical consistency
Altruist
Pursuit of other’s pleasure/health/wellbeing
Egoist
Pursuit of own pleasure/health/wellbeing
Hedonism
Pursuit of pleasure
Mythotherapy
assuming multiple social masks which are myth making devices to enable you to assume multiple personal identities
Cosmopsis
Paralysis, inability to choose, faced with too many choices
Satire of existentialism, as Sarte says “you have unlimited responsibility”
Faith
Believing in what you don't understand
Not a spectator sport, most people are spectators (attending ceremonies, rituals, etc)
These are outward displays of faith, Kierkegaard wants you to go inward
God
God cannot be identified with any particular religion. God is a person but so huge, so great, that we can neither step away from god nor comprehend god. It is impossible to know god objectively
Truth
Subjective truth is on an equal footing with objective truth (the sciences), but in terms of living your life, subjective truth should be preferred, because it is fueled by passion and the inward
Really Existing
Wants us to really exist, finding a truth that you want to live for
No amount of rational truth
The value of the bible
Didnt love the miracles
Valued the non miraculous stories in the bible because they provide for an overwhelming sense of the magnificent, incomprehensibility of go
Choosing God
Rejecting all rational and objective approaches to God
Recognize that God is the great unknown
Develop a feeling for god's awesomeness
In the face of objective uncertainty, make the leap of faith
Knight of Resignation
Someone who is outwardly religious, visibly pious, abides by all the moral rules prescribed by a religion, but are often hypocritical
Knight of Faith
The ideal
Inward, seeks god in solitude, make the leap of faith QUIETLY, and has in his or her mind becoming christian
In the true spirit of christianity, which is LOVE and RESPECT your NEIGHBOR
Places the individual or the particular above the universal
Teleological suspension of the ethical
The suspension of universal ethical standards for the purpose of obeying god and thereby expressing one's faith
Spiritual trial
Story of abraham and isaac
Every time one is called upon to assert themselves as a single individual in the face of an ethical universal
Paradox of Faith
Standing in absolute relation to the absolute
To obey god in spite of what we have been taught that god requires
The single of individual is higher than any universal
Tragic Hero
One who acts within the security of universal ethical standards, consequently you lead a tragic life
Tragic Life
When a person leads their entire life not realizing that their life is one of becoming
Human Greatness
Resigning oneself totally to the will of god
The deception that god needs us
God can require everything from us and for no reason, because humans are unworthy servants
God does not need us
The Wonderful Lamp
When rubbed, the spirit appears, that is, when a person becomes passionate and a subjective law giver, then god, like the genie, comes into existence
Doctrine
A set of beliefs about god and the universe
The litmus test of faith
To be a roman catholic you MUST believe in the virgin birth of Jesus
Myth
A set of stories that convey a sacred meaning
Ritual
Acts of public or private worship
Ex: attending church, visiting the cemetery for funeral rites
Morality
A set of ethical principles that need to be followed
Organization / Hierarchy
Organization is hierarchical
Ex: pope, priest, congregation, etc
Totems
Natural objects or animals that are believed by a particular religious group to have a particular spiritual significance
Emblems
Ex: eagle feather for specific indigenous tribes
Metaphysics
The study of what's real
Epistemology
The study of how we come to know something
Has empiricism ( related to epistemology )and rationalism
UNIVERSAL
A universal moral theory/rule/code is true for everyone everywhere
UNIVERSAL truths are true for everyone everywhere
objective truths are also universal
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