Tag: Kierkegaard
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18. The Universe is not Meaningless, On Objective and Subjective Meaning
People hunger for meaning. We have a profound desire that life not be a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”* This can create a problem with the dominant world-view of our age, which is broadly atheistic/materialist, and thus tends to denude the world of meaning. Recognizing this as a…
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4. Exhortation
Something I wrestle with a lot, often to the point of exhausted inaction, is communication. The problem when you’re dealing with ideas like Being-with-a-capital-B, the transcendent, etc. is precisely the capital B, the fact of transcendence. The transcendent, by definition, transcends us. It can’t be captured in words, concepts, and the like, because if it…
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2. Existence
“I exist” is unique and indubitable, there is no possible rival belief. On top of this, we seem compelled to believe that others exist as well. We claim, at least some claim, we can doubt* this, but can we? We go on speaking regardless. More, what is the self without other selves? We come to…
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Emma and the Philosophers
Fragments on reading Austen’s Emma through the lens of various philosophers. Emma and Kierkegaard Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Kierkegaard stresses that the second half of the command is just as important as the first: love of neighbor is grounded in and equal to (to exceed would be idolatry) our love of ourselves. …
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Kierkegaard, The Present Age
Kierkegaard describes his age as one of reflection, rather than of revolution. Ironically, he wrote this in 1846. Perhaps it wasn’t ironic, I don’t know enough about 1848 to say for sure. The mere fact that a revolution, or revolutions, occur does not mean that they are truly revolutionary, nor that we have escaped the…