Preface The following is a comment made by a fellow WP blogger on one of my posts on Kierkegaard. Because it is very informative and interesting, I decided to turn it into a “guest post”, so that other readers can potentially learn from it. The author is a Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and did his doctoral thesis on Kierkegaard. So his opinion carries the weight of an expert. […]
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On the Dignity of the Person: Human Worth and Gift-giving
Man as Scrooge Watching the movie “Scrooge” (1951) starring Alastair Sim has become part of Christmas tradition for me. I’ve seen other film adaptions of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, but no actor conveys the joy of reclamation as infectiously as Sim did in the 1951 film. Scrooge was rich, but he lived as a poor wretch. He had no appreciation of human worth, neither the worth of his fellow human […]
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On the Dignity of the Person: The Paradox of Sacrifice
Disclaimer I recently read a blogpost titled Kierkegaard is wrong in which the author critiques Kierkegaard’s notion of “faith” in Fear and Trembling. In short, he argues that the notion of a God who demands the sacrifice of one’s child by faith is not only absurd, but also immoral. It is a very thoughtful and balanced article. As I’m somewhat of a fan of Kierkegaard, and have pondered the subject, […]
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Kierkegaard: The Concept of Anxiety
Reading Kierkegaard without sufficient knowledge of Christian theological tradition and the Western philosophical tradition, Hegel in particular, is like watching a boxing match where one opponent is invisible to the audience: you see the movement of only one boxer, you might appreciate his physique and agility, but you don’t know at all whether his attacks and dodges are effective. I’ve read eight of Kierkegaard’s works, and enjoyed them all, but […]
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An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding II.
I wish Hume had taken Philosophy 101, with an emphasis on Logic, from Aristotle. That thought crossed my mind many times when reading the Enquiry. Hume should have known that Aristotle have defined long before him many ideas he had difficulty expressing. He could have saved himself some trouble reinventing the wheel. The reader could have saved some time clearing away the rubble of logical inconsistencies. They rather obscure Hume’s […]
Read more“Provincial Letters” By Blaise Pascal
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes. –Proverbs 26:4,5 Blaise Pascal, a Catholic theologian, scientist and brilliant thinker, wrote these letters to defend his Jansenist friends against charges of heresy by the Jesuits. I tend to think that Pascal and Kierkegaard are kindred spirits. First, they both […]
Read moreCreation: The Value of Man
If the human race passed through the world as a ship through the sea or the wind through the desert, a thoughtless and fruitless whim, if an eternal oblivion always lurked angrily for its prey and there were no power strong enough to wrest it from its clutches — how empty and devoid of comfort would life be! –Søren Kierkegaard Although Kierkegaard died four years before the publication of Origin […]
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