Kierkegaard -- the Inward-Looking Philosophy Term Paper

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Kierkegaard often disguised his own authorship by adopting multiple pseudonyms and plural viewpoints that were, on the surface, often contrary to his beliefs. For instance, he begins Fear and Trembling by taking his own position, that of the fearful Abraham, the resigned knight, to contrast his own, modern perspective with the perspective of the good, resigned knight of faith Abraham, who sets out to sacrifice Isaac with a quiet soul and a happy heart, unlike the heavy heart of Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard, however, despite his selection of the old, Biblical patriarch in what was to emerge as one of his greatest and most memorable works of philosophy, is still credited as the first great modern thinker to expose the unexplained sense of anxiety that oppresses modern individuals, in a society where it is difficult to tell the difference between knights of faith and resignation, where little scope is given to individuals to fully test themselves through external actions. Despite his sense of the uneventful nature of the external challenges of modern life, by placing a modern soul into a 'story' with a specific action, Kierkegaard was able to explore what constituted religious belief and ethical actions. In the tale, God had promised Abraham a son. Abraham had to wait many years for Isaac's birth. That birth itself was unexpected and absurd, as Sarah had long ceased to be able to give birth to children. Isaac was born in the face of Sarah's doubt. Then God commanded Abraham to sacrifice this long-awaited son. Yet Abraham understood, because he had the right faith and right internal understanding that he should and must obey God, knowing that God would deliver his son. The existence of Isaac was itself a gift, an absurd action.

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Thus, for God to take this gift away, though absurd on its surface, should not and could not be rationalized.

Abraham might look unethical, like a primitive savage to the outsider's eye, when sacrificing his son. But because he behaved with the correct faith in his heart he was not a savage. Kierkegaard saw, in the conflict of the patriarch an explicit link with his own life and his own melancholy. He noted "If I had not had my vita ante acta [my melancholy], if I had not had my depression -- marriage to her [his fiancee] would have made me happier than I had ever dreamed of becoming. But being the person I unfortunately am, I must say that I could become happier in my unhappiness without her than with her." His own internal state made his solitude bearable, he stated, and in fact, given his internal state, made his solitude the 'correct' course of action, for a man such as himself. For Kierkegaard, the inside always came first, justifying the external actions.

Right before he wrote Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard penned a discourse entitled "Every Good and Perfect Gift is from Above." In other words, all gifts were in some sense arbitrary and absurd, much like the saving gift of Isaac for Abraham. Human beings, dwelling in a world of absurdity, could not always be ensured that their ethical actions would be rewarded, and sometimes must behave in ways, in an absurd world, that looked strange and harsh to outside observers. But provided that their internal state was intelligently thought out, and in correct alignment, as was Abraham's, they were behaving rightly, in a way that was in accordance to a higher law.

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