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Who Is the Father of Existentialism? The Historical Context of Kierkegaard’s Criticism of Hegel’s Interpretation of Actuality
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Jon Stewart
Published/Copyright:
July 10, 2024
Abstract
In the 1830s and 1840s, there was a decisive conflict between the Danish followers of Hegel and his opponents. The latter criticized Hegel’s philosophy for being overly abstract and having lost touch with reality. Kierkegaard is given credit for this criticism and for establishing a new philosophical direction that rejects abstraction and focuses on the concrete experience of the individual. The present article argues that there was nothing particularly new about Kierkegaard’s rejection of abstract philosophy and his attempt to emphasize actuality and life. In fact, the conflict was wider and extended to many other Danish thinkers at the time who were critical of precisely this point in Hegel.
This work was produced at the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, v.v.i. It was supported by the Agency VEGA under the project “The Principle of Humanity in the Context of Contemporary Conflicts. Existential and Phenomenological Challenges,” VEGA 2/0130/23.
Online erschienen: 2024-07-10
Erschienen im Druck: 2024-07-10
© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titelseiten
- Preface
- Titelseiten
- Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Works and Journals
- Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Works and Journals
- Demonic Pantheism: Either/Or on Boredom as the Modern Crisis of Faith
- Kierkegaard, Spiritual Crisis, and Anxious Faith: Battling for Faith in Fear and Trembling and Strengthening in the Inner Being
- “Existence is the Spatiating”: Typographical Thinking and the Concept of Existence in Kierkegaard’s Postscript
- The Sickness unto Death Penalty: To Condemn the Other to Despair for the Sake of One’s Own Despair
- Section 2: Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
- Section 2: Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
- Re-Staging Existence: Revisiting Kierkegaard’s Theory of Life Stages
- Ignorance, Frailty, and Defiance: The Anxiety of Freedom
- Not a Negation, but a Position: Kierkegaard on Evil and Sin
- Original Sin and Transmission of Trauma: A Dialog between Kierkegaard’s Hamartiology and the Phenomenon of Transgenerationality
- “A Satire on What It Is to Be a Human Being”: A Kierkegaardian Critique of Neoliberal Subjectivity
- Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Who Is the Father of Existentialism? The Historical Context of Kierkegaard’s Criticism of Hegel’s Interpretation of Actuality
- Kierkegaards Auseinandersetzung mit Magnús Eiríksson: Werkstattbericht und Übersetzung
- Section 4: Receptions of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 4: Receptions of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Zwischen Glauben und Verzweiflung. Franz Werfel und Søren Kierkegaard
- La pensée existentielle de Kierkegaard et la philosophie de Charles De Koninck: contexte et résonances
- Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Contemporaries: Sources in Translation and Commentary
- Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Contemporaries: Sources in Translation and Commentary
- Martensen’s Review of Heiberg’s New Poems and the Discussion on Speculative Poetry and the Crisis of the Age
- Hans Lassen Martensen’s “New Poems by J.L. Heiberg”
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviations
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titelseiten
- Preface
- Titelseiten
- Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Works and Journals
- Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Works and Journals
- Demonic Pantheism: Either/Or on Boredom as the Modern Crisis of Faith
- Kierkegaard, Spiritual Crisis, and Anxious Faith: Battling for Faith in Fear and Trembling and Strengthening in the Inner Being
- “Existence is the Spatiating”: Typographical Thinking and the Concept of Existence in Kierkegaard’s Postscript
- The Sickness unto Death Penalty: To Condemn the Other to Despair for the Sake of One’s Own Despair
- Section 2: Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
- Section 2: Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
- Re-Staging Existence: Revisiting Kierkegaard’s Theory of Life Stages
- Ignorance, Frailty, and Defiance: The Anxiety of Freedom
- Not a Negation, but a Position: Kierkegaard on Evil and Sin
- Original Sin and Transmission of Trauma: A Dialog between Kierkegaard’s Hamartiology and the Phenomenon of Transgenerationality
- “A Satire on What It Is to Be a Human Being”: A Kierkegaardian Critique of Neoliberal Subjectivity
- Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Who Is the Father of Existentialism? The Historical Context of Kierkegaard’s Criticism of Hegel’s Interpretation of Actuality
- Kierkegaards Auseinandersetzung mit Magnús Eiríksson: Werkstattbericht und Übersetzung
- Section 4: Receptions of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 4: Receptions of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Zwischen Glauben und Verzweiflung. Franz Werfel und Søren Kierkegaard
- La pensée existentielle de Kierkegaard et la philosophie de Charles De Koninck: contexte et résonances
- Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Contemporaries: Sources in Translation and Commentary
- Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Contemporaries: Sources in Translation and Commentary
- Martensen’s Review of Heiberg’s New Poems and the Discussion on Speculative Poetry and the Crisis of the Age
- Hans Lassen Martensen’s “New Poems by J.L. Heiberg”
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviations
