"Hegel was the great system-maker. What others viewed as his grand achievement Kierkegaard viewed as his unforgivable crime, the attempt to rationally systematize the whole of existence. The whole of existence cannot be systematized, Kierkegaard insisted, because existence is not yet whole; it is incomplete and in a state of constant development. Hegel attempted to introduce mobility into logic, which, said Kierkegaard, is itself an error in logic. The greatest of Hegel's errors, however, was his claim that he had established the objective theory of knowledge. Kierkegaard countered with the argument that subjectivity is truth. As he put it, “The objective uncertainty maintained in the most passionate spirit of dedication is truth, the highest truth for one existing.” ... Kierkegaard, it remains to be said, is not a systematic theologian. We know what he thought of systems and system makers, of which Hegel was the prime example. There is hardly a page in his writings that does not prompt from the systematically minded reader a protest against disconnections and apparent contradictions. Like Flannery O'Connor, he shouted to the hard of hearing and drew startling pictures for the almost blind."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Absurdists19th-century philosophersChristian existentialistsNovelists from DenmarkPhilosophers from Denmark
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Richard John Neuhaus, in Kierkegaard for Grownups (2004)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Søren Kierkegaard
1813 – 1855
dänischer Philosoph, Theologe und Schriftsteller
245 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Søren Kierkegaard →
Related Quotes
"Individuals of the contemporary generation are fearful of existence … only in great masses do they dare to live, and …"
"If a person incurred some greater guilt but also improved and year by year steadily made progress in the good, it is …"
"His reverence will assert that there is too much philosophy in the book; His Right Reverence’s mental eye will seek i…"
"Can one blame the atheist for assuming His Reverence to be a bit lunatic, quite literally understood? The difficult d…"
"In order to learn true humility (I use this expression to describe the state of mind under discussion), it is good fo…"
"After a considerable walk through the forest, where I became acquainted with several of the little lakes I am so fond…"
"It is as useless for a person to want first of all to decide the externals and after that the fundamentals as it is f…"
"A master and way out of the league that the rest of us play in."
"If the ethical – that is, social morality – is the highest ... then no categories are needed other than the Greek phi…"
"It will be easy for us once we receive the ball of yarn from Ariadne (love) and then go through all the mazes of the …"