Know Yourself in the Mirror of the Word: Kierkegaard on Self-Knowledge
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Kateřina Kolínská
Abstract
The article provides a reconstruction of Kierkegaardʼs conception of self-knowledge, mainly in the light of The Concept of Irony, The Sickness unto Death, Philosophical Fragments and selected upbuilding discourses. The concept of self-knowledge, which in Kierkegaard goes beyond mere epistemology, is shown in its duality, as a process which is for Kierkegaard both substantial and relational: to know oneself is for Kierkegaard both an ethical claim upon man and a religious act whose accomplishment is dependent on Godʼs intervention. The article next discusses how self-knowledge involves a relationship to and “knowledge” of God. Finally, it is shown that self-knowledge presupposes not only that one believes himself or herself to be known by God, but also by his or her fellow human beings: self-knowledge requires engagement in the lived world and with others.
A version of this text was published in Czech language in Reflexe. Filosofický časopis, no. 57, 2019, pp. 35 – 58.
I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Pavel Kouba, and to E. Obermueller and L. R. Bear.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Title pages
- Preface
- Contents
- Articles
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- A Christian Art? Søren Kierkegaard’s Views on Music and Musical Performance Reconsidered
- Between the Two Ethics: Why Assessor Wilhelm is not a Judge
- Narrative Variation and the Mood of Freedom in Fear and Trembling
- On Fear and Trembling’s Motif of the Promise: Faith, Ethics and the Politics of Tragedy
- The Ambiguity of Mimesis: Kierkegaard between Aesthetic Fantasy and Religious Imitation
- Know Yourself in the Mirror of the Word: Kierkegaard on Self-Knowledge
- „Mein Bestreben, das Martyrium zu verherrlichen…“ Zur Idee des Martyriums in Kierkegaards Journalen ab 1846
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- The Faust Project in Kierkegaard’s Early Journals
- Of Clairvoyants and Mousvoyants: Kierkegaard’s Polemic against Speculative Philosophy in the “Telegraph Messages”
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Does Kierkegaard’s Rewritten Parable of the Good Samaritan Leave the World to the Devil? Kierkegaard and Adorno on What it Means to Love one’s Neighbor in the Modern World
- Kierkegaard and Beauvoir: Existential Ethics as a Humanism
- Double Consciousness and Despair: Exploring a Connection Between Søren Kierkegaard and W.E.B. Du Bois
- Hitchcock Meets Kierkegaard: Selfhood and Gendered Forms of Despair in Vertigo and The Sickness unto Death
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- The Mutiny of the Pseudonyms in the Kierkegaardian Authorship
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s “Literary Winter Crops” and Kierkegaard’s Polemic
- Back matter
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Title pages
- Preface
- Contents
- Articles
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- A Christian Art? Søren Kierkegaard’s Views on Music and Musical Performance Reconsidered
- Between the Two Ethics: Why Assessor Wilhelm is not a Judge
- Narrative Variation and the Mood of Freedom in Fear and Trembling
- On Fear and Trembling’s Motif of the Promise: Faith, Ethics and the Politics of Tragedy
- The Ambiguity of Mimesis: Kierkegaard between Aesthetic Fantasy and Religious Imitation
- Know Yourself in the Mirror of the Word: Kierkegaard on Self-Knowledge
- „Mein Bestreben, das Martyrium zu verherrlichen…“ Zur Idee des Martyriums in Kierkegaards Journalen ab 1846
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- The Faust Project in Kierkegaard’s Early Journals
- Of Clairvoyants and Mousvoyants: Kierkegaard’s Polemic against Speculative Philosophy in the “Telegraph Messages”
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Does Kierkegaard’s Rewritten Parable of the Good Samaritan Leave the World to the Devil? Kierkegaard and Adorno on What it Means to Love one’s Neighbor in the Modern World
- Kierkegaard and Beauvoir: Existential Ethics as a Humanism
- Double Consciousness and Despair: Exploring a Connection Between Søren Kierkegaard and W.E.B. Du Bois
- Hitchcock Meets Kierkegaard: Selfhood and Gendered Forms of Despair in Vertigo and The Sickness unto Death
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- The Mutiny of the Pseudonyms in the Kierkegaardian Authorship
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s “Literary Winter Crops” and Kierkegaard’s Polemic
- Back matter
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
