Table Of ContentK ierkegaard on the Philosophy of History
K ierkegaard on the
Philosophy of History
G eorgios Patios
PhD in Philosophy, University of Liverpool
© Georgios Patios 2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-38327-3
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T o my wife Konstantina and my son Konstantinos, always
C ontents
P reface i x
A cknowledgements x
L ist of Abbreviations x i
I ntroduction 1
1 Hegel’s Philosophy of History 6
Introduction 6
The Hegelian enigma 8
The varieties of historical writing 1 1
Reason in history 1 8
Conclusion 2 5
2 Kierkegaard’s Concept of History 2 7
Introduction 2 7
The ‘Interlude’ 2 8
The context to the ‘Interlude’ 4 3
Doubt, belief, will, and freedom in history 4 7
Epilogue 4 9
3 The Structure of the Kierkegaardian ‘Self’ 5 1
Introduction 5 1
Freedom and necessity, temporality and eternity 5 3
The human self 5 6
Eternity, God and despair 5 8
Anxiety 6 0
Possibility as anxiety 6 4
Anxiety as the result of a synthesis 6 4
Eternity and moment 6 7
Despair 7 1
Existential freedom 7 4
Despair and faith 7 4
Human/Political self 7 6
Conclusion 7 9
4 H egel’s Philosophy of History and Kierkegaard’s
Concept of History: A Synthesis Instead of
a Confrontation 8 0
Introduction 8 0
Hegelian claims on history 8 1
vii
viii Contents
Reason 8 1
Knowledge of the past 8 2
Order and meaning in history 8 2
God’s providence 8 3
Incarnation and history 8 4
Hegelian freedom and necessity 8 6
Individuals in history 8 6
Conclusion 8 7
Kierkegaardian claims 8 7
Kierkegaardian concept of history 8 8
Kierkegaard and the Incarnation 8 9
Freedom as opposite to logical necessity 9 1
Human consciousness and history 9 2
Necessity in (past) history 9 3
Doubt 9 4
Belief 9 5
The historical 9 5
Historical knowledge 9 6
My arguments 9 7
Conclusion 1 06
Hegel and Kierkegaard: a possible synthesis 1 06
Kierkegaard’s relations to Hegel re-reconsidered 1 14
Niels Thulstrup 1 14
Jon Stewart 1 16
Jean-Paul Sartre 1 20
Mark C. Taylor 1 21
James Bogen 1 23
Peter J. Mehl 1 23
Merold Westphal 1 24
Unhappy consciousness 1 25
Epilogue 1 26
5 Heidegger’s Response to the Problem of History 1 28
Introduction 1 28
Part I 1 29
Part II 1 40
Part III 1 46
C onclusion 1 47
N otes 1 51
B ibliography 1 78
I ndex 1 85
P reface
K ierkegaard is well known as a witty writer mainly occupied with
Christianity. In what follows, however, Kierkegaard is depicted as a
philosopher who can provide us with some new and authentic ideas
about the nature of history. Kierkegaard’s approach to the problem of
history is compared with Hegel’s philosophy of history and Heidegger’s
view of history.
H egel’s philosophy of history, as we examine a little later in our anal-
ysis, remains a constant point of reference for Kierkegaard’s thought on
history, and therefore, we need to understand his views on history if we
aspire to really grasp Kierkegaard’s approach.
H eidegger, on the other hand, appears to be a thinker who can replace
Kierkegaard’s ‘existential’ approach to the nature of history, and thus,
we need to closely examine Heidegger’s views on history to safely judge
about the value of Kierkegaard’s contribution to the philosophy of
history.
H egel’s philosophy of history is examined and analysed first, and the
conclusion is that we can clearly detect two main Hegelian assertions
regarding history: first, that reason is the main historical agent and,
second, that human beings can fully know their past history.
K ierkegaard’s arguments follow a totally different approach from
that of Hegel’s. Kierkegaard argues that we cannot fully know our past
history and that the crucial element in history is to decide about our
future history instead of simply trying to understand our past history. It
is also argued that Kierkegaard constructs human self in such a way that
human beings must simultaneously create themselves and history by
making decisions regarding their present and their future.
I t is further argued that neither Hegel nor Kierkegaard can, on their
own, provide us with a total and full picture of the nature of history
because Hegel, on the one hand, focuses on the macroscopic view of
history and Kierkegaard, on the other, on the microscopic view (that is,
from the point of view of the individual). This is why a possible synthesis
of both views is suggested as a better way to truly understand history.
H eidegger’s view of history is examined as a possible ‘existential’ alter-
native approach to history from that of Kierkegaard’s. The conclusion
is that Heidegger cannot really offer us any help because he is either
borrowing his main concepts from Kierkegaard or he is too vague.
ix
A cknowledgements
M any people gave me help, in many different ways, during the writing
of this book. I thank them all. I wish to especially thank Clare Carlisle,
Stephen Clark, and Gillian Howie for their help during the first stages of
the writing; and Simon Hailwood and Simon Podmore for their sugges-
tions during the last stages. I want to express my gratitude to Daniel
Whistler who was always there to help me with his advice, his sugges-
tions, and his encouragement. I need, finally, to thank my friend Manos
Antypas for his steady and quiet support during the last five years.
x
L ist of Abbreviations
B T B eing and Time
C A T he Concept of Anxiety
C T T he Concept of Time
C UP C oncluding Unscientifi c Postscript to the Philosophical
Fragments
I PH I ntroduction to the Lectures on the Philosophy of World History
J C J ohannes Climacus
P F P hilosophical Fragments
P H T he Philosophy of History
P R P hilosophy of Right
P S P henomenology of Spirit
S UD T he Sickness Unto Death
xi
