Kierkegaard's claim that 'truth is subjectivity' means:
AThere are no objective facts — everything is a matter of personal opinion
BThe truths that matter most for human existence are those one relates to with passionate personal commitment, not detached observation
CScientific truth is less valid than religious truth
DEach person creates their own private reality
Kierkegaard does not deny objective facts. His point is that the truths relevant to how one should live — questions of meaning, commitment, and faith — require a different relationship than detached, disinterested observation. Knowing 'objectively' that everyone dies is different from existing in the full awareness of one's own mortality. The first is a proposition; the second transforms how one lives. Subjectivity here means passionate inward appropriation, not arbitrary personal preference.
Question 2 True / False
Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety (Angst) refers to fear of a specific danger or threat.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
Kierkegaard distinguishes anxiety from fear. Fear has a definite object (I fear the dog, the exam, the fire). Anxiety is directed at nothing in particular — it is the awareness of possibility itself, the 'dizziness of freedom' that arises when we recognize that our future is radically open and that we must choose without guarantees. Anxiety reveals our freedom precisely because it is objectless: it is not about what might happen but about the sheer fact that anything could.
Question 3 Short Answer
What are Kierkegaard's three stages of existence, and what motivates the transition between them?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: The aesthetic stage pursues pleasure and novelty but leads to boredom and despair. The ethical stage embraces duty and commitment but can become rigid and self-righteous. The religious stage involves a 'leap of faith' — a passionate personal commitment that transcends rational justification. The transitions are motivated by despair: each stage eventually reveals its own insufficiency, driving the individual toward a deeper mode of existence.
These are not stages of historical development (as in Hegel) but modes of existing that a single person can inhabit. The aesthetic individual lives for the moment — Don Juan is the archetype. The ethical individual makes commitments and follows universal rules — Judge William in Either/Or is the exemplar. The religious individual, exemplified by Abraham in Fear and Trembling, makes a commitment that cannot be justified by universal reason. Kierkegaard does not argue for the religious stage through logical proof — that would miss the point. The leap of faith is precisely what cannot be proven.
Question 4 True / False
Kierkegaard's philosophy is primarily a systematic, logically rigorous alternative to Hegel's system.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
Kierkegaard explicitly rejected system-building. His critique of Hegel was that abstract systems cannot capture what matters most about human existence — the particular individual facing particular choices in particular situations. Kierkegaard wrote under pseudonyms, in fragments, and through indirect communication precisely to avoid creating another impersonal system. His philosophical method is anti-systematic by design: he wants to provoke the reader into self-examination, not supply them with a completed theory.