Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, Volume I

Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 6
Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments......Page 14
PREFACE......Page 18
INTRODUCTION......Page 22
Part One: THE OBJECTIVE ISSUE OF THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY......Page 32
 CHAPTER I: The Historical Point of View......Page 36
  § 1. Holy Scripture......Page 37
  § 2. The Church......Page 47
  § 3. The Evidence of the Centuries for the Truth of Christianity......Page 59
 CHAPTER II: The Speculative Point of View......Page 63
Part Two: THE SUBJECTIVE ISSUE, THE SUBJECTIVE INDIVIDUAL'S RELATION TO THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY, OR BECOMING A CHRISTIAN......Page 72
 Section I: SOMETHING ABOUT LESSING......Page 74
  CHAPTER I: An Expression of Gratitude to Lessing......Page 76
   1. The subjective existing thinker is aware of the dialectic of communication......Page 85
   2. In his existence-relation to the truth, the existing subjective thinker is just as negative as positive, has just as much of the comic as he essentially has of pathos, and is continually in a process of becoming, that is, striving......Page 93
   3. Lessing has said that contingent historical truths can never become a demonstration of eternal truths of reason, also that the transition whereby one will build an eternal truth on historical reports is a leap......Page 106
   4. Lessing has said: If God held all truth in his right hand and continual striving in his left, he would choose the latter......Page 119
    a. A logical system can be given......Page 122
    b. A system of existence cannot be given......Page 131
 Section II: THE SUBJECTIVE ISSUE, OR HOW SUBJECTIVITY MUST BE CONSTITUTED IN ORDER THAT THE ISSUE CAN BE MANIFEST TO IT......Page 140
  CHAPTER I: Becoming Subjective What ethics would have to judge if becoming subjective were not the highest task assigned to a human being; what must be disregarded in a closer understanding of this task; examples of thinking oriented to becoming subjective......Page 142
  CHAPTER II: Subjective Truth, Inwardness; Truth Is Subjectivity......Page 202
   APPENDIX: A Glance at a Contemporary Effort in Danish Literature......Page 264
   § 1. What It Means to Exist; Actuality......Page 314
   § 2. Possibility Superior to Actuality; Actuality Superior to Possibility; Poetic and Intellectual Ideality; Ethical Ideality......Page 331
   § 3. The Contemporaneity of the Particular Elements of Subjectivity in the Existing Subjective Individual; Contemporaneity as the Opposite of the Speculative Process......Page 356
   § 4. The Subjective Thinker; His Task, His Form, That Is, His Style......Page 362
    § 1. That the Point of Departure Was Taken in Paganism, and Why......Page 374
    § 2. The Importance of a Preliminary Agreement about What Christianity Is Before There Can Be Any Question of a Mediation of Christianity and Speculative Thought; the Absence of an Agreement Favors Mediation, Although Its Absence Renders Mediation Illusory; the Supervention of an Agreement Prevents Mediation......Page 382
    § 3. The Issue in Fragments as an Introductory Issue, not to Christianity but to Becoming a Christian......Page 394
   DIVISION 2: The Issue Itself: The individual's eternal happiness is decided in time through a relation to something historical that furthermore is historical in such a way that its composition includes that which according to its nature cannot become historical and consequently must become that by virtue of the absurd......Page 398
     § 1. The Initial Expression of Existential Pathos, the Absolute Orientation (Respect) toward the Absolute τέλoς Expressed through Action in the Transformation of Existence—Esthetic Pathos—the Illusiveness of Mediation—the Monastic Movement of the Middle Ages—Simultaneously to Relate Oneself Absolutely to One's Absolute τέλoς and Relatively to Relative Ends......Page 400
     § 2. The Essential Expression of Existential Pathos: Suffering—Fortune and Misfortune as an Esthetic Life- View in Contrast to Suffering as a Religious Life-View (Illustrated by the Religious Address)—the Actuality of Suffering (Humor)—the Actuality of Suffering in the Latter State as a Sign That an Existing Individual Relates Himself to an Eternal Happiness—the Illusion of Religiousness—Spiritual Trial—the Basis and Meaning of Suffering in the Former State: Dying to Immediacy and Yet Remaining in the Finite—an Upbuilding Diversion—Humor as the Incognito of Religiousness......Page 444
     § 3. The Decisive Expression of Existential Pathos Is Guilt—That the Inquiry Goes Backward Rather Than Forward—the Eternal Recollection of Guilt Is the Highest Expression of the Relation of the Guilt-Consciousness to an Eternal Happiness—Lower Expressions of the Guilt-Consciousness and Corresponding Forms of Satisfaction—Penance of One's Own Making—Humor—the Religiousness of Hidden Inwardness......Page 538
    The Intermediate Clause between A and B......Page 568
    B: THE DIALECTICAL......Page 574
     § 1. The Dialectical Contradiction That Constitutes the Break: to Expect an Eternal Happiness in Time through a Relation to Something Else in Time......Page 583
     § 2. The Dialectical Contradiction That an Eternal Happiness Is Based on the Relation to Something Historical......Page 587
     § 3. The Dialectical Contradiction That the Historical under Consideration Here Is Not Something Historical in the Ordinary Sense But Consists of That Which Can Become Historical Only against Its Nature, Consequently by Virtue of the Absurd......Page 591
    APPENDIX TO B: The Retroactive Effect of the Dialectical on Pathos Leading to a Sharpened Pathos, and the Contemporaneous Elements of This Pathos......Page 594
     a. The consciousness of sin......Page 596
     c. The pain of sympathy......Page 598
  CHAPTER V: Conclusion......Page 600
   Becoming or Being a Christian Is Defined Objectively......Page 620
   Being a Christian Is Defined Subjectively......Page 623
APPENDIX: An Understanding with the Reader......Page 630
A First and Last Explanation......Page 638