Philosophy - Kierkegaard`s Fear and Trembling

On Kierkegaard 's Fear and Trembling

For us to arrive at a working concept of Kierkegaard 's phrase teleological suspension of the ethical , we must first define parts of the phrase . The suspension of the ethical entails the withholding of the values or principles which are generally deemed as good and , hence moral . On the other hand , the teleological part can be interpreted as the purpose which the means is framed at attaining . Summed in a simpler way , the phrase can then be seen as the withholding of the values or principles

which are generally deemed as good and moral in to obtain a greater and far more ethical end

In the biblical story of Abraham , God has ed him to sacrifice his son Isaac as a gesture of his pure faithfulness to God . By sacrificing what is being meant is that Abraham has to kill his son as a semblance of what appears to be a superior end . Roughly speaking , Abraham is commanded by God to do what seems to be an immoral act in the eyes of men and that which is sinful and is against one of the ten commandments of God yet is on the other hand a religious act primarily because the act of sacrificing itself for the glory of God is merited with devoutness in itself . Here we see the apparent distinction between an act which is religious and an act which is moral . Consequently , the distinction brings us to the point that a moral act is not necessarily a religious one , or that a religious act is not essentially a moral one in the eyes of men . And since the commandment of God is well beyond all morality , Abraham sought the greater end

The story of Abraham might be initially observed as analogous to that of the tragic hero . A tragic hero , in most literature , is a person of high reputation who considers his demise will ultimately carry out a superior good as an end . It is indeed quite notable in the bible that Abraham is a man of high reputation in the eyes of God since God made him the ancestor of a multitude of nations ' ADDIN EN .CITE Brians1999116Paul BriansReading About the World1February 25 Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing25-0 (Brians , 1999 . But nevertheless , Abraham is not a tragic hero in the strictest sense for one essential reason : the superior good can only be met at the demise of the tragic hero . Quite on the contrary , Abraham was merely put into test and that in the end his act did not result to his downfall . This is the point wherein the distinction between the tragic hero and the knight of faith is drawn - the tragic hero renounces himself in to express the universal , the knight of faith renounces the universal in to become the universal ' ADDIN EN .CITE Kierkegaard1994226Soren KierkegaardFear and Trembling and The Book on Adler352May 10 Everyma n apos s Library05 (Kierkegaard , 1994 . Roughly speaking , the tragic hero...