Kirkegaard's "Knight of Infinite Resignation"?
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  Kirkegaard's "Knight of Infinite Resignation"?
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Author Topic: Kirkegaard's "Knight of Infinite Resignation"?  (Read 513 times)
Beet
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« on: June 14, 2015, 11:49:29 AM »

What does this mean? How is it not just a rationalization for doing whatever you want under the auspices of Resignation/Faith? Sure, he claims to pass through the ethical realm and sacrifice what he loves, but people have sacrificed things they love (or think they love) for other complicated psychological motives before.
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ingemann
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« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2015, 05:26:18 PM »

What does this mean? How is it not just a rationalization for doing whatever you want under the auspices of Resignation/Faith? Sure, he claims to pass through the ethical realm and sacrifice what he loves, but people have sacrificed things they love (or think they love) for other complicated psychological motives before.

Either you get what Kierkegaard says or not, there's no shame in not getting it or disagreeing with it. My personal opinion about Kierkegaard is that he was a man who never grew up, a man who lived in a permanent adolescence, self centred, spoiled, self rightous, smug and never having any responsibility in his life living of his family's money. The one time he almost grew up, he ran away from the responsibility as fast as he could (and this was the excuse, she was no princess and he was no knight, they was of equal class). Are some of his thought interesting; yes he was a very intelligent man, but it doesn't change that many of texts are just way for him to justify his actions and beliefs, and dealing with his fear of death.
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Nathan
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« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2015, 04:24:28 PM »

I always thought the knight of infinite resignation was in some ways a more conventionally admirable figure than the knight of faith ('conventionality' of course having very little to do with what Kierkegaard himself thought about this). The knight of faith can be accused of delusion; the knight of infinite resignation cannot because he operates in some sense beyond a world whose imperfections he in fact accepts. An insistence on the this-worldly is, ironically, one of Kierkegaard's chief blind spots in this case.

I think Beet may be conflating the knight of infinite resignation with the knight of faith but it's been a while since I've read Fear and Trembling so I may have forgotten something Kierkegaard says about the former somewhere.

ingemann's criticism of Kierkegaard's psychology is valid and probably a pretty good read on him, but I think that having those faults alerted Kierkegaard to elements of both his own and other people's lives to which a more traditionally successful or admirable person may not have had access (similarly to how Dostoyevsky's gambling addiction and sexual immorality gave him an insight into sin that somebody not guilty of those specific sins would not have had).
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Beet
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« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2015, 01:54:42 PM »

IIRC, the Knight of Infinite Resignation is Abraham going, 'Yes, God has commanded me to murder my son, but I will do it because I am infinitely resigned to giving up all that I love', whereas the Knight of Faith is Abraham going, 'Yes, God has commanded me to murder my son, but I will do it because somehow, I am positive that he will make it alright even though I have no idea how.'
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ingemann
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« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2015, 02:53:43 PM »

IIRC, the Knight of Infinite Resignation is Abraham going, 'Yes, God has commanded me to murder my son, but I will do it because I am infinitely resigned to giving up all that I love', whereas the Knight of Faith is Abraham going, 'Yes, God has commanded me to murder my son, but I will do it because somehow, I am positive that he will make it alright even though I have no idea how.'

Hmm "Knight of Infinite Resignation" are really a interesting translation of what would really translate directly as "Tragic Hero".

I honestly find the Fear and Trembling more interesting as historical pierce which show the changed view of the sacrifise of Isak from Abraham willingless to give up his most prized possession to Abraham willingness to murder his son if God command it. It really show a changed in attitude from collectivistic view with the family as hierarchic unit with the patriach and the other members of the family as his property as ruler to seeing people as individuals.
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