Kierkegaard's Existentialist Philosophy

Often considered by many as the first existentialist, Soren Kierkegaard's work is unique in being both complicated and simple at the same time. Through reading his passages, it is clear to anyone that Kierkegaard is a devout Christian, but attacks the system of Christianity as corrupt. I myself found in his writings passages that struck me as thoughts that are so simple in writing, but so deep in intellectual thought and reflection, that I simply could not ignore its fantastic importance and connection to the rest of his work. As an agnostic myself, struggling with whether or not to take a leap of faith, these passages truly began a journey of enlightenment and deliberation in which I found both confusing and rewarding.

On page 114 in Walter Kaufman's Existentialism From Dostoevsky to Sartre a selection of Kierkegaard's writing states: "Faith does not need it; aye, it must even regard the proof as its enemy. But when faith begins to feel embarrassed and ashamed, like a young woman for whom her love is no longer sufficient, but who secretly feels ashamed of her lover and must therefore have it established that there is something remarkable about him - when faith thus begins to lose its passion, when faith begins to cease to be faith, than a proof becomes necessary so as to command respect from the side of unbelief." Then, reiterated on page 117, "Without risk there is no faith, and the greater the risk the greater the faith; the more objective security the less inwardness (for inwardness is precisely subjectivity), and the less objective security the more profound the possible inwardness." Examining Kierkegaard's thought on faith can help you branch out and understand the rest of his philosophy, so it fittingly is an excellent place to start.

What Kierkegaard tries to get his readers to understand here and try to convince them to do, is to take what I've been so skeptical to do, a leap of faith. He shows that faith is the most important part of concepts such as religion and love. When he says "the greater the risk the greater the faith," he means that in taking that leap, that step into the unknown you are allowing yourself to believe in something that cannot be fundamentally proven, you are allowing yourself to hold truth in something you believe in as true, disregarding the fact of whether or not your peers and "the crowd" believe it to be so or not. At the same time, he stresses you cannot have faith without doubt, the doubt that maybe what you believe in does not exist. The best example to use in the case of a Christian man such as Kierkegaard, is faith in God. You and no one can ever truly prove or disprove the existence of God, but in not having that rational doubt, that voice in the back of your head saying "no way," you cannot truly open yourself up to faith, it would have no essence, it would just be what is. A person does not have doubt that a book exists, because they can see it, hold it in their hands, examine it, and in the same sense, they cannot have that faith that it exists because there is no faith, it truly does exist. To have faith, you need doubt and with the stronger the doubt and the bigger the risk one takes, the greater their faith.

This leap of faith connects the rest of his thoughts, it is the glue that holds all of his ideas and his philosophy in place and keeps them rational and subjective. Working from the simplest of his ideas, Kierkegaard chose to write his works and publish them with pseudonyms. He did not write anonymously, for that would give the impression of no one, of nothing, but in writing with a pseudonym, he gave his readers a name to believe in. His pseudonyms represented his different ways of thought, and he wrote in pseudonyms to keep his works from being categorized as specific religious or philosophical thought. He captures the reader's attentions but keeps his name from his hard work so his readers would not fall into a crowd of followers and simply, for lack of a better word, follow his thoughts without risking their beliefs.

One of his most important and most famous contributions to existentialist thought is the idea of the crowd. This philosophy, along with his ideas on Christendom, most closely connects to his leap of faith thought. In his writings he states that "the 'crowd' is the untruth." By claiming that the "crowd" is untruth he is stating that those who follow the thoughts and directions of others, simply for the fact they do not want to claim responsibility for their ideas and thoughts, can no longer be viewed as individuals. A great example of this would be a mob. People tend to join mobs behind the rallying of certain charismatic individuals that have convinced a population that their views are right and another view is wrong. The people in the mob are no longer individuals, but rather a single entity and they diffuse their responsibilities as an individual and defer to the crowd and their thoughts and ideas are scraped from importance.

The idea of the crowd relates to his philosophy of faith because when a person no longer exists as an individual he, exists as a part of the crowd. He no longer thinks and believes as an individual, he no longer takes that risk; as a matter of fact there is no risk. "The communicator of the truth can only be a single individual," this means that even though a "crowd" could be right on all levels and aspects of their thought and beliefs, it is not truth, the only truth is the individual and his thoughts. An individual should not ever abandon his thoughts for the "crowd," he should adhere to what the crowd wants, he should "stand fast" to his beliefs and carry on with them.

Kierkegaard goes on to reveal his thoughts on authority, and dread, and freedom. All of which can connect once again to the leap of faith. He states that "innocence is ignorance" which means that one is not determined in his thoughts by in his person and his current position. That man does not take a leap of faith that man stands idle and unaware. When he discusses the idea of authority he uses an apostle as his key example. An apostle cannot prove physically that he is an apostle; people will just have to take his word for it, he has no proof. People have to have faith that God gave authority to this apostle and they should listen to what he says. This comes back full circle to faith and Christianity and his idea that truth is subjective and the concept of the "greater the risk the greater the faith."

"The greater the risk the greater the faith," connects all parts of Kierkegaard's works together and keeps them in tune. A reader absorbs content from who they assume are various different authors, writing on various topics. The author of the works keeps his name absent from them to keep his readers from falling into a school of thought with others. That "crowd" is the untruth and the individual is the person who seeks the most truth without being influenced by the ideas and actions of the "crowd." An individual claims he is an apostle sent from God with a message but cannot prove it physically, only other individuals can take that leap of faith and listen and believe him. If a person does not take a leap of faith he is ignorant. If a person does take that leap of faith, such as those who believe there is a God but still have reason and doubt to think in the opposite direction, they are individuals who seek the greater truth. They are individuals who seek their truth inwardly and yet are objectively uncertain. Faith in something is the ultimate truth, it is not the crowd, it is not innocence, it is not ignorance, it is the belief that your subjective truth exists while keeping in mind the fact that it may not. Kierkegaard wants his readers to understand that they do not have to follow a school of thought to be accepted in the Kingdom of God, to be accepted in Christianity, he wants them to understand that by searching for one's own truth, taking the risk, not being part of the crowd and particularly not being swayed by institutions such as the Catholic church, is the true meaning of his philosophy, true existentialist thought.

WORKS CITED
Kaufmann, Walter. Existentialism From Dostoyevsky to Sartre.