
Kierkegaard Reads Hegel

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Hegel’s philosophy was a sort of all encompassing philosophy, where he thought all human knowledge was progressively moving towards the truth, which he called the Absolute Ideal. He lumped in art, culture, science, philosophy, and even Christianity as fragments of this one single truth that we are slowly uncovering through rational pursuit.
Kierkegaard, on the other hand, believed that certain modes of being for human life were fundamentally different than others. For example, someone who pursues an aesthetic life (doing awesome shit because it is awesome, like for example the band AC/DC) and someone who is pursuing the moral life (like for example Greta Thunberg) are simply doing two different things. While AC/DC is undeniably more awesome than fixing climate change, and fixing climate change is undeniably more moral than badass guitar riffs, we as “rational” human beings ultimately have no way of deciding between which sort of life to live. The same goes for giving up on rationality itself to have faith in God. In his view Christianity wasn’t the culmination of rational thought, but in a way the rejection of it for faith.
Oh and also Hegel rather strangely said that German, aside from maybe Ancient Greek, was the best language to do philosophy in. Kierkegaard was so annoyed at not being able to do his dissertation in Danish (Latin or German were the choices) that he petitioned the King himself to get permission. Kinda weird but I guess the King wasn’t really as busy as you’d think back then.
Hegel’s philosophy was a sort of all encompassing philosophy, where he thought all human knowledge was progressively moving towards the truth, which he called the Absolute Ideal. He lumped in art, culture, science, philosophy, and even Christianity as fragments of this one single truth that we are slowly uncovering through rational pursuit.
Kierkegaard, on the other hand, believed that certain modes of being for human life were fundamentally different than others. For example, someone who pursues an aesthetic life (doing awesome shit because it is awesome, like for example the band AC/DC) and someone who is pursuing the moral life (like for example Greta Thunberg) are simply doing two different things. While AC/DC is undeniably more awesome than fixing climate change, and fixing climate change is undeniably more moral than badass guitar riffs, we as “rational” human beings ultimately have no way of deciding between which sort of life to live. The same goes for giving up on rationality itself to have faith in God. In his view Christianity wasn’t the culmination of rational thought, but in a way the rejection of it for faith.
Oh and also Hegel rather strangely said that German, aside from maybe Ancient Greek, was the best language to do philosophy in. Kierkegaard was so annoyed at not being able to do his dissertation in Danish (Latin or German were the choices) that he petitioned the King himself to get permission. Kinda weird but I guess the King wasn’t really as busy as you’d think back then.
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