kierkeguard

Question 1

(8-9) in the first version of the Abraham story why does he tell Isaac that he wants to slay him?

Answer 1

to make Isaac believe Abraham is bad rather than loose faith in a God who would demand Abraham give up his sons a burnt offering

Question 2

(9) what happens to Abraham and Isaac after the events on mount Mariah in the second version?

Answer 2

• Abraham becomes old, his spirit is broken and he is worn down by life, sees darkness and no joy in life anymore, shame in the face of his son.
• Isaac flourished

Question 3

(10) in the 3rd version what attitude does Abraham take towards the sacrifice of Isaac?

Answer 3

• pragmatic, senseless, remorseless

- afterwards he is extremely guilty and paranoid

Question 4

(10-11) in the fourth version how does Abraham react to what he has to do

Answer 4

‘shudder went through his body but Abraham drew the knife’

Question 5

(9-11) why does kierkeguard give four versions of the same story?

Answer 5

• draw on the subjunctive, no clear answer
• instability of meaning in human life
• evoke different feelings towards Abraham
• evoke different views on rightness or wrongness

Question 6

what is the relevance of the mention of mother/ child at the end of each version?

Answer 6

• Analogy- God is mother, Abraham beast, Isaac is child
• Growing up, weaned off of a life of dependency
• maternal emotion contrasts the senseless actions of Abraham

Question 7

(46) what does keirkegaard mean by saying that the ethical as such is the universal and that it has nothing outside of itself that is its telos?

Answer 7

• universal law is ethical and the best way of life.
• it applies to everyone and is done for the fact that it is a universal law, not by the merit of an individual, subjective telos.
• Abraham followed telos not universal law

Question 8

(46) what does it mean to say that the individuals ethical task is constantly to express himself in this to annul his particularity in order to become the universal?

Answer 8

people should not assert their own particularity but should act only according to universal law. universal law can only be universal if everyone abides by it.

Question 9

(46) what is sin according to keirkegaard?

Answer 9

sin is asserting particularity and straying from universal law

Question 10

(47) what is the paradox of faith?

Answer 10

‘the single individual is higher than the universal (…) the movement is repeated so that after having been in the universal he now, as a particular, keeps himself to himself as higher that the universal’

• this is a sin
• faith in god is guilty of sin by definition of keirkegaard
• religion is supposed to be collective but it stresses individualism

Question 11

(48) what does Kiekegaard mean by saying that the standpoint of faith cannot be maintained

Answer 11

because mediation takes place in the ethical and universal, it cannot help to make sense of the religion or faith (spark notes)
-all mediation occurs precisely by virtue of the universal

Question 12

(49) what is his point about temptation?

Answer 12

Temptation- not why someone does something but the manner in which they do it in is ignored but in a bad way.

• one should just admit they were tempted away from the universal rather than saying they have faith
• if they have faith they should distinguish this from temptation
• Abraham’s temptation was to do something good rather than his immoral task

Question 13

(49) what does ‘the story of Abraham contains (…) a teleological suspension of the ethical’ mean?

Answer 13

ethical value VS religious value

• highly specific aim to keep faith even in awful times
• in order to keep faith you have to assert particularity and stray from the universal

Question 14

(49) what is absurd according to Kierkegaard?

Answer 14

‘the single individual is higher than the universal’

- Abraham ‘either a murderer or a believer’

Question 15

(50-52) why is Abraham not a tragic hero?

Answer 15

• a tragic hero is great by ethical virtue

- Abraham is great by personal virtue, telos is outside of the universal

Question 16

(52-3) why can Abraham not speak?

Answer 16

• Abraham cannot be mediated therefore cannot speak.
• one can only speak if they are speaking in the universal
• if Abraham was to speak he would have to admit that his actions were actions of temptation
• and they cannot be justified
• over stepping the universal makes no sense to those who are in it
• Abraham gives up universal for something higher than is not universal

Question 17

(55-6) what’s Keikegaards point about judging acts by their outcomes?

Answer 17

• what is an outcome, it is never fully clear what the outcome of an action actually is.
• if you judge based on the outcome, you never begin judging

Question 18

(60) what does he mean by ‘inwardness’

Answer 18

• associated with individualism
• ‘faith is a paradox what inwardness is higher that outwardness’
• t the usual ethic task is to turn an individual’s inwardness into outwardness
• when someone recedes into religion they commit an offence

Question 19

(62-63) ‘the one Knight of faith cannot help the others at all… partnership in these areas is utterly unthinkable’- what does this mean?

Answer 19

faith makes you absolutely isolated. you are alone with yourself until the end. paradox of faith.

Question 20

(63-64) how does Kierkegaard interpret Jesus?

Answer 20

to be taken literally as a ethical radical. wanted to undermine established politics

Question 21

(65) what does he mean when he infers that ethical expression for Abrahams attitude to Isaac is one of hate but he does not hate Isaac

Answer 21

universal VS religion

-hate in the universal but love in the religious

Question 22

(69-70) How does he describe the knight of faith?

Answer 22

• condemned to silence and is completely isolated from the ethical
• ‘absolute isolation’
• no such thing as being a christian, one becomes a christian