FEAR AND TREMBLING / PROBLEM
III: Was Abraham ethically defensible in keeping silent about his purpose
before Sarah, before Eleazar, before Isaac?
For an important background for this summary, see our article on Kierkegaard: The Aesthetic, Ethical and Religious.
The third problem Kierkegaard
notes in regards to Abraham's story has to do with the relationship between the
individual and others. Like in problem I and Problem
II Kierkegaard starts from Hegel's view that the ethical is universal, that is common to
all. As universal, the ethical is "revealed" while the individual is
hidden. While the body is manifest, the inner soul is concealed. This puts the ethical and the
personal (the aesthetic)
at odds. In order to become ethical the individual has so deny himself.
Kierkegaard holds that if "If
there is not a concealment which has its ground in the fact that the individual
as the individual is higher than the universal, then Abraham's conduct is
indefensible" (Fear and Trembling, p. 129). But if we can find such a case
we are once again faced with the inner\outer paradox. faith resembles the aesthetic in being
personal, but while the aesthetic lies beneath the ethical, for Kierkegaard faith in above it.
Kierkegaard introduced the category of "the
interesting". Being interesting and leading an interesting life does not
come from following a set path, it comes from the exact opposite: doing, be
definition, extraordinary things that come at a high personal price (Kierkegaard gives the example of
Socrates). The interesting therefore lies in the liminal space between the
aesthetic and the ethical.
In order to explain this Kierkegaard
looks to Aristotle's Poetics where he talks about discovery as part of the
definition of myth. For there to be discovery, Kierkegaard argues, there must
be something which is thus far unknown. If the discovery is relaxation of the
plot, the unknown is its source of the tension. "Greek tragedy is
blind", says Kierkegaard, it conceals in order the reveal. The Greek hero
acts out of not knowing his fate, while modern drama in Kierkegaard's eyes
" has emancipated
itself dramatically, sees with its eyes, scrutinizes itself, resolves fate in
its dramatic consciousness" in order to for the "hero's free act for
which he is responsible" (Fear and Trembling, p. 132). What Kierkegaard is after is trying to
understand the relations between concealment, the aesthetic and the paradox of
faith - see part 2 of the
summary.
Next summary: Problem III - part 2 >>>
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