Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, Volume I

700 Pages·1992·3.35 MB·English

by  Søren Kierkegaard

CONCLUDING UNSCIENTIFIC POSTSCRIPT TO PHILOSOPHICAL
FRAGMENTS
VOLUME I
KIERKEGAARD’S WRITINGS, XII. 1
CONCLUDING UNSCIENTIFIC
POSTSCRIPT TO PHILOSOPHICAL
FRAGMENTS
by Søren Kierkegaard
VOLUME I: TEXT
Edited and Translated
with Introduction and Notes by
Howard V. Hong and
Edna H. Hong
Copyright © 1992 by Howard V. Hong
Published by Princeton University Press,
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855.
[Afsluttende uvidenskabelig efterskrift English]
Concluding unscientific postscript to Philosophical fragments / by Søren
Kierkegaard ; edited and translated with introduction and notes by Howard V.
Hong and Edna H. Hong.
p cm.—(Kierkegaard’s writings ; 12)
Translation of: Afsluttende uvidenskabelig efterskrift
Includes index.
ISBN 0-691-07395-3 (v. 1 . alk. paper)—ISBN 0-691-02081-7 (pbk. v. 1)—
ISBN 0-691-07395-3 (v. 2 : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-691-02081-7 (pbk : v. 2)
1. Christianity—Philosophy. 2. Apologetics—19th century.
I. Hong, Howard Vincent, 1912-II. Hong, Edna Hatlestad, 1913-III. Title
IV. Series Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855. Works.
English. 1978; 12.
B4373.A472E5 1992
201—dc20 91-4093
Preparation of this volume has been made possible in part by a grant from
the Division of Research Programs of the National Endowment
for the Humanities, an independent federal agency
Princeton University Press books are printed
on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources
Designed by Frank Mahood
Printed in the United States of America by Princeton
University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
1357910 8642
CONTENTS
Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
Part One
THE OBJECTIVE ISSUE OF THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTER I
The Historical Point of View
§ 1. Holy Scripture
§ 2. The Church
§ 3. The Evidence of the Centuries for the Truth of Christianity
CHAPTER II
The Speculative Point of View
Part Two
THE SUBJECTIVE ISSUE, THE SUBJECTIVE INDIVIDUAL’S RELATION TO THE TRUTH OF
CHRISTIANITY, OR BECOMING A CHRISTIAN
Section I
SOMETHING ABOUT LESSING
CHAPTER I
An Expression of Gratitude to Lessing
CHAPTER II
Possible and Actual Theses by Lessing
1. The subjective existing thinker is aware of the dialectic of communication
2. In his existence-relation to the truth, the existing subjective thinker is just as
negative as positive, has just as much of the comic as he essentially has of
pathos, and is continually in a process of becoming, that is, striving
3. Lessing has said that contingent historical truths can never become a
demonstration of eternal truths of reason, also that the transition whereby one
will build an eternal truth on historical reports is a leap
4. Lessing has said: If God held all truth in his right hand and continual striving
in his left, he would choose the latter
a. A logical system can be given
b. A system of existence cannot be given
Section II
THE SUBJECTIVE ISSUE, OR HOW SUBJECTIVITY MUST BE CONSTITUTED IN ORDER THAT THE
ISSUE CAN BE MANIFEST TO IT
CHAPTER I
Becoming Subjective
What ethics would have to judge if becoming subjective were not the highest
task assigned to a human being; what must be disregarded in a closer
understanding of this task; examples of thinking oriented to becoming subjective
CHAPTER II
Subjective Truth, Inwardness; Truth Is Subjectivity
APPENDIX
A Glance at a Contemporary Effort in Danish Literature
CHAPTER III
Actual Subjectivity, Ethical Subjectivity; the Subjective Thinker
§ 1. What It Means to Exist; Actuality
§ 2. Possibility Superior to Actuality; Actuality Superior to Possibility; Poetic
and Intellectual Ideality; Ethical Ideality
§ 3. The Contemporaneity of the Particular Elements of Subjectivity in the
Existing Subjective Individual; Contemporaneity as the Opposite of the
Speculative Process
§ 4. The Subjective Thinker; His Task, His Form, That Is, His Style
CHAPTER IV
The Issue in Fragments: How Can an Eternal Happiness Be Built on Historical
Knowledge?
DIVISION 1
For Orientation in the Plan of Fragments
§ 1. That the Point of Departure Was Taken in Paganism, and Why
§ 2. The Importance of a Preliminary Agreement about What Christianity Is
Before There Can Be Any Question of a Mediation of Christianity and
Speculative Thought; the Absence of an Agreement Favors Mediation, Although
Its Absence Renders Mediation Illusory; the Supervention of an Agreement
Prevents Mediation
§ 3. The Issue in Fragments as an Introductory Issue, not to Christianity but to
Becoming a Christian
DIVISION 2
The Issue Itself
The individual’s eternal happiness is decided in time through a relation to
something historical that furthermore is historical in such a way that its
composition includes that which according to its nature cannot become historical
and consequently must become that by virtue of the absurd
A
PATHOS
§ 1. The Initial Expression of Existential Pathos, the Absolute Orientation
(Respect) toward the Absolute τέλος Expressed through Action in the
Transformation of Existence—Esthetic Pathos—the Illusiveness of Mediation—
the Monastic Movement of the Middle Ages—Simultaneously to Relate Oneself
Absolutely to One’s Absolute τέλος and Relatively to Relative Ends
§ 2. The Essential Expression of Existential Pathos: Suffering—Fortune and
Misfortune as an Esthetic Life-View in Contrast to Suffering as a Religious Life-
View (Illustrated by the Religious Address)—the Actuality of Suffering (Humor)
—the Actuality of Suffering in the Latter State as a Sign That an Existing
Individual Relates Himself to an Eternal Happiness—the Illusion of
Religiousness—Spiritual Trial—the Basis and Meaning of Suffering in the
Former State: Dying to Immediacy and Yet Remaining in the Finite—an
Upbuilding Diversion—Humor as the Incognito of Religiousness
§ 3. The Decisive Expression of Existential Pathos Is Guilt—That the Inquiry
Goes Backward Rather Than Forward—the Eternal Recollection of Guilt Is the
Highest Expression of the Relation of the Guilt-Consciousness to an Eternal
Happiness—Lower Expressions of the Guilt-Consciousness and Corresponding
Forms of Satisfaction—Penance of One’s Own Making—Humor—the
Religiousness of Hidden Inwardness
The Intermediate Clause between A and B
B
THE DIALECTICAL
§ 1. The Dialectical Contradiction That Constitutes the Break: to Expect an
Eternal Happiness in Time through a Relation to Something Else in Time
§ 2. The Dialectical Contradiction That an Eternal Happiness Is Based on the
Relation to Something Historical
§ 3. The Dialectical Contradiction That the Historical under Consideration Here
Is Not Something Historical in the Ordinary Sense But Consists of That Which
Can Become Historical Only against Its Nature, Consequently by Virtue of the
Absurd
APPENDIX TO B
The Retroactive Effect of the Dialectical on Pathos Leading to a Sharpened
Pathos, and the Contemporaneous Elements of This Pathos
a. The consciousness of sin
b. The possibility of offense
c. The pain of sympathy
CHAPTER V
Conclusion
Becoming or Being a Christian Is Defined Objectively
Being a Christian Is Defined Subjectively
APPENDIX
An Understanding with the Reader
A First and Last Explanation
CONCLUDING UNSCIENTIFIC POSTSCRIPT
TO PHILOSOPHICAL FRAGMENTS
A MIMICAL-PATHETICAL-DIALECTICAL COMPILATION AN EXISTENTIAL
CONTRIBUTION
by
JOHANNES CLIMACUS
Edited by
S. Kierkegaard
‘Aλλὰ δή γ’, ὦ Σώϰϱατες, τι οἲει ταṽτ’ εἶναι ξννάπαντα; ϰνίσματὰ τοί ἐστι
πεϱιτματα τῶν λόγων, ὂπεϱ ἂϱτι ἔλεγον, ϰατὰ βϱαχὺ διηϱμἑνα
[But I must ask you, Socrates, what do you suppose is the upshot of all this? As I
said a little while ago, it is the scrapings and shavings of argument, cut up into
little bits].
Greater Hippias, 304 a