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Standing Alone Individual Running to God

Author: LiXin
Tutor: WangTianCheng
School: Jilin University
Course: Foreign Philosophy
Keywords: Kierkegaard Lonely Individuals Complex Subjectivity Faith
CLC: B5
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2005
Downloads: 240
Quote: 1
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Abstract

Kierkegaard said: “If I want to have an inscription on my tombstone, I will choose ‘the man’….”This is a brilliant portrait in Kierkegaard’s life. He not only regarded paying attention to individual existence as people’s task, but also considered awakening people’s attention to individual existence as his task. Therefore, he established his unique existential philosophy about standing alone individual. Socrates firstly began his discussion of and inquiring after humanness, and “pulled”the philosophy from the nature back to the human, which radically change philosophical orientation. Kierkegaard extended this standpoint and put the discussion of humanness on going to individual existent experience. He demonstrated God’s ante-existence in individual existent state. God creates individual who worships God. Individual can only affiliate with God and God can lead him to gospel. Western traditional philosophy began with logos in its study of man, but Kierkegaard did it on the opposite way. He started with human existence and discussed human existent state, existent mode and individual existent experience. Individual must decide to choose “either this or that”in aesthetic, ethical, religious existent mode, which makes him slam the logos’door in the implicit belief in the fantasticality. Individual came into religious phase by the leap of belief and actualized his genuine existence. To change the mode of being after human existence in philosophy, his is a good attempt for the choice of “either this or that”with which to decide human’s genuine existence. The thesis is divided into four parts and discusses Kierkegaard’s individual view. In the first part, it expatiates on individual existent state. Individual who is created by God is an integration of the two poles. God endues individual with a guilty consciousness. Then, when individual newly meets with God, he must affront God as standing alone individual, so that he dares to shoulder the responsibility. In the second part, it discusses individual and subjectivity. Kierkegaard thinks the individual existent inherence restricts the individual existent subjectivity. He points out the individual subjectivity i.e. gospel from the viewpoint of the existent theory. Individual regards subjectivity as gospel, which makes individual go in for his inherence. God endues individual inherence, so individual consequentially turns the study of individual inherence to God. But individual can’t master God in using the logos’probative and logic discursion, only depends on the belief in God. Individual realizes the absolute belief in God by mastering absolute fantasticality. The belief in God is individual subjective behavior and the necessity of exhibition for the individual inherence. However, the individual can’t depend on individual will to attain relation with God. God makes the man who follows the God-man-Christ leading to the gospel. The God-man-Christ is the mediate and bridge between the individual and God. In the third part, the process of the individual approaching to God is divided into three existent modes: aesthetic phase, ethical phase and religious phase. Each phase is higher than the previous phase in the process. But not everyone experiences every phase and comes near God. His choice for “either this or that”decides individual experiencing some phase and it is his free choice, but only the individual who comes into religious phase by the leap of belief can

Standing Alone Individual Running to God

Abstract

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