The Moment

1
The Moment

• September 1, 1855
• Kierkegaards last words

2
Socrates plays an important role throughout
Kierkegaards life. This includes both
appreciation and critique. However, this issue is
so complicated that we cannot do justice to it in
relation to the different periods of his
authorship. Let us, instead, investigate Ks
obvious praise of Socrates in The Moment and then
shortly discuss in class in what ways he might
disagree.

• A great book on this issue is Brian Söderquist
  The isolated Self.

3
Kierkegaards Retrieval of Socrates

• Aspects of Kierkegaards repeated claim I do
  not call myself a Christian.
• A) K. does not really know what true Christianity
  consists of. Rather he knows what it is not.
• B) K. does not want to be related to Christianity
  by the crowd-Christians, for from the point of
  view of their definition he is indeed NOT (and
  does not want to be) a Christian.
• C) K.s valuation of the common man.

4
Socrates and Kierkegaard A)

• S. does not know what the good, the beautiful,
  the true consists of. S. is the ignorant one.
  But he can refute wrong conceptions of others.
  (S.s negativism)

• K. does not know what true Christianity consists
  of, but he is capable of demonstrating that
  proposed positive determinations are wrong. cf.
  P. 445 and passim)

5
Let us dwell on this a bit

• S. and K. seem to be closely related to each
  other with regard to this important issue They
  cannot provide a final positive world view, but
  they can demonstrate the collapse of other
  suggestions. They know that they do not know.
  cf. CUP! there may be internal reasons for
  the impossibility of a positive final life
  view.. But this, again, is the kind of knowledge
  in virtue of which they contrast pleasantly with
  others and their world views. Accordingly, the
  Oracle of Delphi praised S. to be the wisest man
  alife.

6
Practice and Theory

• Connected with this, we may also realize that
  the theoretical insight into the impossibility of
  a positive determination of the good, the true,
  the beautiful, Christianity, does give practice a
  peculiar place. Both S. and K. are at pains to
  emphasize the importance of what we do. We shall
  act in an authentic way even though we may not
  be capable of catching up by means of our
  thought. again dialectics of existence and not
  dialectics of thought

7
Socrates and Kierkegaard B)

• Main opponent The Sophists who earned money by
  means of their rhetorical skills - the smart
  asses.
• S. fights the Sophists throughout his life and
  finally dies for his ideals (Apology).

• Main opponent The Crowd-Christians the
  officials of the church (the pastors).
  Christendom lies in the abyss of sophistry
  (p.446)
• K. fights the Crowd-Christians from the beginning
  to the end. Obviously, he stylizes himself being
  a martyr in analogy to Socrates, at the end of
  his life in particular.

8
Socrates and Kierkegaard C)

• Both, Socrates and
• lived on the street
• engage the common
• This is not a merely
• istic, but it points at
• Spirit in regard to

• Kierkegaard lived
• (447) in order to
• man in discussions.
• accidental character-
• a congeniality of
• their thinking.

9
Belonging to the common man (and not to official
Christianity)

• It is the common man and the commonness
  (primitivity etc.) of man who (that is) to be
  convinced of S. and Ks life-views. That is, it
  is not any special talent or gift we need to have
  in order to follow them. And it is not a special
  talent or gift by means of which we may
  instantiate their philosophy. Rather, it adresses
  man qua man, human being qua human being. It is
  capable of being instantiated in virtue of THIS
  basic capacity within us.
• Thus Everyone is capable of being a wise man / a
  Christian even though hardly anyone becomes one
  as a matter of fact.