Calvin O. Schrag helpfully clarifies what Kierkegaard means by the “teleological suspension of the ethical” ( Ethics , 70, 1959). It’s essential to distinguish between the “ethical” as a mode of existence and the ethical as universal moral requirements. When Kierkegaard uses the category in the former sense, he is contrasting it with the aesthetic; the aesthetic mode of existence is the state of indecision (the lover who cannot bring himself to commit); by making a decision and shouldering that... Read more

Some notes on Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling . 1. Kierkegaard uses Abraham as the exemplar of the limitations of the Hegelian system. The Hegelians claim to have arrived at the eschatological form of philosophy, encompassing everything, including Christianity, within its scope. Kierkegaard brilliantly discerns that Abraham won’t fit. He’s trying to show, too, that faith and the religious cannot be transcended by the ethical and philosophical; rather the religious is the higher form of existence. 2. Kierkegaard writes under the... Read more

Kierkegaard’s theatricality, sensitivity, and sense of importance, are evident in his diary entries during 1848-49, when he was under fairly scathing attack from the journal The Corsair . One entry reads: “And even though Denmark were willing to do so, it is very questionable whether Denmark could make good the wrong it has done me. That I am an author in whom Denmark will undoubtedly take prise, is certain; that, qua author, I have lived, to all intents and purposes,... Read more

A friend, Bret Saunders, writes the following in response to my post summarizing Caputo’s account of the “postmodern turns”: “Caputo appears to have omitted the so-called ‘theological turn,’ such as is found in J.-L. Marion and J.-F. Courtine. Of course, this is because Caputo continues to deny that Marion’s work constitutes a genuine ‘turn,’ since his phenomenology supposedly lacks the rigor proper to the Husserlian tradition (Heidegger says one must be a practical atheist to do phenomenology). I say ‘continues’... Read more

A friend, Bret Saunders, writes the following in response to my post summarizing Caputo’s account of the “postmodern turns”: “Caputo appears to have omitted the so-called ‘theological turn,’ such as is found in J.-L. Marion and J.-F. Courtine. Of course, this is because Caputo continues to deny that Marion’s work constitutes a genuine ‘turn,’ since his phenomenology supposedly lacks the rigor proper to the Husserlian tradition (Heidegger says one must be a practical atheist to do phenomenology). I say ‘continues’... Read more