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Climacus’ Miracle: Another Look at “the Wonder” in Philosophical Fragments through a Spinozist Lens

  • G.P. Marcar
Published/Copyright: September 12, 2019
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Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook
From the journal Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Volume 24 Issue 1

Abstract

In Chapter 2 of the Philosophical Fragments, Søren Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Johannes Climacus poetises about a “king who loved a maiden.” Climacus concludes this venture with a bold claim: what he has just described is “so different from any human poem” that it should not be regarded as a poem at all, but as “the wonder” [Vidunderet] which leads one to exclaim in adoration that “[t]his thought did not arise in my own heart!” In the subsequent chapter of Philosophical Fragments, Climacus proceeds to offer a number of arguments against demonstrations of God’s existence, leading many scholars to conclude that he represents an unequivocally anti-rationalist perspective. Against such interpretations, this paper will seek to highlight how Climacus’ claims track those of the seventeenth century Dutch lens-grinder and rationalist philosopher, Baruch Spinoza. From this, it will be argued that “the wonder” in Climacus’ thought takes the form of an indirect, ethico-existentialist argument for the truth of Christianity’s incarnate God.

Online erschienen: 2019-09-12

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Front matter
  2. Title pages
  3. Preface
  4. Contents
  5. Articles
  6. Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  7. Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  8. Kierkegaard’s Aesthete in Either/Or: Using Hegelian Mediation in Everyday Life
  9. Kierkegaard on the Dancers of Faith and of Infinity
  10. Climacus’ Miracle: Another Look at “the Wonder” in Philosophical Fragments through a Spinozist Lens
  11. Naked Before God: Kierkegaard’s Liturgical Self
  12. Das palimpsestische Selbst. Zur Genese, Struktur, Darstellung und Vermittlung von personaler Identität nach Sören Kierkegaard
  13. Das Verhältnis von Selbstwerdung und Gott bei Sören Kierkegaard. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme
  14. Kierkegaard’s Secret Politics of Anguish and Love
  15. Kierkegaard as a Thinker of Alienation
  16. To Be(come) Love Itself: Charity as Acquired Originality
  17. Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  18. Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  19. Pseudonyms? What Pseudonyms? There were no Pseudonyms…
  20. A Prompter’s Play? Kierkegaard’s Puzzling Portrait of Authorial Withdrawal in “An Occasional Discourse”
  21. Kierkegaard’s Authorship as Eucharistic Liturgy
  22. Section 3: Kierkegaardian Resources for Current Debates and Challenges
  23. Section 3: Kierkegaardian Resources for Current Debates and Challenges
  24. Defiance Before the Law: Kierkegaard, Kafka, Coetzee
  25. Existence Philosophy as a Humanism?
  26. Towards a Kierkegaardian Retreating of the Political
  27. Weird Allies? Kierkegaard and Object-Oriented Ontology
  28. Unplug Your Life: Digital Detox Through a Kierkegaardian Lens
  29. “Out into the Middle of Life”: The Age of Disintegration and Ecological Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Thought
  30. Back matter
  31. Abbreviations
  32. List of Contributors
https://doi.org/10.1515/kierke-2019-0003

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Front matter
  2. Title pages
  3. Preface
  4. Contents
  5. Articles
  6. Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  7. Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  8. Kierkegaard’s Aesthete in Either/Or: Using Hegelian Mediation in Everyday Life
  9. Kierkegaard on the Dancers of Faith and of Infinity
  10. Climacus’ Miracle: Another Look at “the Wonder” in Philosophical Fragments through a Spinozist Lens
  11. Naked Before God: Kierkegaard’s Liturgical Self
  12. Das palimpsestische Selbst. Zur Genese, Struktur, Darstellung und Vermittlung von personaler Identität nach Sören Kierkegaard
  13. Das Verhältnis von Selbstwerdung und Gott bei Sören Kierkegaard. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme
  14. Kierkegaard’s Secret Politics of Anguish and Love
  15. Kierkegaard as a Thinker of Alienation
  16. To Be(come) Love Itself: Charity as Acquired Originality
  17. Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  18. Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  19. Pseudonyms? What Pseudonyms? There were no Pseudonyms…
  20. A Prompter’s Play? Kierkegaard’s Puzzling Portrait of Authorial Withdrawal in “An Occasional Discourse”
  21. Kierkegaard’s Authorship as Eucharistic Liturgy
  22. Section 3: Kierkegaardian Resources for Current Debates and Challenges
  23. Section 3: Kierkegaardian Resources for Current Debates and Challenges
  24. Defiance Before the Law: Kierkegaard, Kafka, Coetzee
  25. Existence Philosophy as a Humanism?
  26. Towards a Kierkegaardian Retreating of the Political
  27. Weird Allies? Kierkegaard and Object-Oriented Ontology
  28. Unplug Your Life: Digital Detox Through a Kierkegaardian Lens
  29. “Out into the Middle of Life”: The Age of Disintegration and Ecological Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Thought
  30. Back matter
  31. Abbreviations
  32. List of Contributors
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