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  1. Kierkegaard on Self, Ethics, and Religion: Purity or Despair.Roe Fremstedal - 2022 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    Many of Søren Kierkegaard's most controversial and influential ideas are more relevant than ever to contemporary debates on ethics, philosophy of religion and selfhood. Kierkegaard develops an original argument according to which wholeheartedness requires both moral and religious commitment. In this book, Roe Fremstedal provides a compelling reconstruction of how Kierkegaard develops wholeheartedness in the context of his views on moral psychology, meta-ethics and the ethics of religious belief. He shows that Kierkegaard's influential account of despair, selfhood, ethics and religion (...)
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  2. Original Sin and Radical Evil: Kierkegaard and Kant.Roe Fremstedal - 2012 - Kantian Review 17 (2):197-225.
    By comparing the theories of evil found in Kant and Kierkegaard, this article aims to shed new light on Kierkegaard, as well as on the historical and conceptual relations between the two philosophers. The author shows that there is considerable overlap between Kant's doctrine of radical evil and Kierkegaard's views on guilt and sin and argues that Kierkegaard approved of the doctrine of radical evil. Although Kierkegaard's distinction between guilt and sin breaks radically with Kant, there are more Kantian elements (...)
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  3. Demonic despair under the guise of the good? Kierkegaard and Anscombe vs. Velleman.Roe Fremstedal - 2023 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 66 (5):705-725.
    The aim of this paper is to clarify Kierkegaard’s concept of demonic despair (and demonic evil) and to show its relevance for discussions of the guise of the good thesis (i.e. that in f-ing intentionally, we take f-ing to be good). Contemporary discussions of diabolic evil often emphasise the phenomena of despair and acedia as apparent counter-examples to the guise of the good. I contend that Kierkegaard’s analysis of despair is relevant to these discussions, because it reconciles demonic (extreme) despair (...)
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  4. Kierkegaard on the Metaphysics of Hope.Roe Fremstedal - 2012 - Heythrop Journal 53 (1):51-60.
    This article deals with hope – and its importance – by analysing the little-known analysis of hope found in Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard present hope as essential to moral agency, arguingthat hope should never be given up, even if it is not supported by experience. This articlegives an interpretation of the strong claims about the necessity of hope found in Kierkegaardwhich tries to reconstruct some of Kierkegaard’s central claims, arguing that Kierkegaard can be used to sketch a distinction between justified and unjustified (...)
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  5. Kierkegaard's double movement of faith and Kant's moral faith.Roe Fremstedal - 2012 - Religious Studies 48 (2):199 - 220.
    The present article deals with religious faith by comparing the so-called double movement of faith in Kierkegaard to Kant's moral faith. Kierkegaard's double movement of faith and Kant's moral faith can be seen as providing different accounts of religious faith, as well as involving different solutions to the problem of realizing the highest good. The double movement of faith in Fear and Trembling provides an account of the structure of faith that helps us make sense of what Kierkegaard means by (...)
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  6. Rational Hope against Hope? A Pragmatic Approach to Hope and the Ethics of Belief.Roe Fremstedal - 2019 - In Gerhard Schreiber (ed.), Interesse am Anderen. Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zum Verhältnis von Religion und Rationalität. Für Heiko Schulz zum 60. Geburtstag (Theologische Bibliothek Töpelmann, vol. 187). Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 723-743.
    The aim of this paper is to explore a pragmatic approach to hope and the ethics of belief that allows rational hope against hope. Hope against hope is hope that goes beyond what the evidence supports by hoping for something that is both highly unlikely and highly valuable. However, this could take different forms. One could either hope against the evidence or merely go beyond it; the evidence could be inconclusive or conclusive, conflicting or clear, misleading or plain, absent or (...)
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  7. Søren Kierkegaard’s Critique of Eudaimonism and Autonomy.Roe Fremstedal - 2018 - In Douglas Moggach, Nadine Mooren & Michael Quante (eds.), Perfektionismus der Autonomie. Brill Fink. pp. 291-308.
    This chapter focuses on how Kierkegaard criticizes both eudaimonism and Kantian autonomy for failing to account for unconditional obligations and genuine other-regard. Like Kant, Kierkegaard argues that eudaimonism makes moral virtue contingent on prudence. Kierkegaard views eudaimonism as an anthropocentric and self-regarding doctrine, which he contrasts not with Kantian autonomy but with theocentrism and proper other-regard. Kierkegaard then criticizes Kantian autonomy in much the same way as he criticizes eudaimonism. Whereas eudaimonism makes morality contingent on prudence, autonomy makes morality contingent (...)
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  8. The Moral Argument for the Existence of God and Immortality.Roe Fremstedal - 2013 - Journal of Religious Ethics 41 (1):50-78.
    This essay tries to show that there exist several passages where Kierkegaard (and his pseudonyms) sketches an argument for the existence of God and immortality that is remarkably similar to Kant's so-called moral argument for the existence of God and immortality. In particular, Kierkegaard appears to follow Kant's moral argument both when it comes to the form and content of the argument as well as some of its terminology. The essay concludes that several passages in Kierkegaard overlap significantly with Kant's (...)
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  9. “Kierkegaard and Nietzsche: Despair and Nihilism Converge”.Roe Fremstedal - 2016 - In Audun Øfsti (ed.), Modernity – Unity in Diversity? Essays in Honour of Helge Høibraaten. Oslo, Norway: Novus. pp. 455-477,.
    This article investigates the convergence between Kierkegaard’s concept of despair and Nietzsche’s concept of nihilism. The piece argues that (1) both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche rely on an internal critique of ways of life which collapse on their own terms; (2) both despair and nihilism involve a radical, existential aporia and double-mindedness which can be (3) either conscious or non-conscious; (4) there is some overlap between the main types of nihilism and the different types of inauthentic (non-conscious) despair; (5) finally, a (...)
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  10. “Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard on the Ethico-Religious: A Contribution to the Interpretation of the Kierkegaardian Existential Philosophy in Wittgenstein's Denkbewegungen”.Roe Fremstedal - 2006 - Ideas in History: Journal of the Nordic Society for the History of Ideas 1 (1-2):109-150.
    This article aims to show that in his little-known work Denkbewegungen (MS 183), Wittgenstein sketchesan existential philosophy that has been influenced by Kierkegaard. While earlier interpretations of Denkbewegungen stress that this is a diary and tend to favour a biographical orpsychological approach to the diary, I try – with a thematic andhistorical approach − to show that this book sheds new light upon how Wittgenstein was occupied with Kierkegaard (and Christian-ity) on the one hand, and ethics, religion, and existential philoso-phy (...)
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  11. “Meaning of Life: Peter Wessel Zapffe on the Human Condition”.Roe Fremstedal - 2013 - In Beatrix Himmelmann (ed.), On Meaning in Life. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 113-128.
    The present text deals with the question of the meaning of life in theexistentialist theory oft heNorwegian philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe(1899–1990). In his book On the Tragic (1941), Zapffe sketched a theory of the human condition where the meaning of life plays a decisive role together with the human need for justice. This paper aims to reconstruct the central elements of Zapffe’s analysis and to discuss them critically by focusing on his claim that human beings need a fundamental meaning of (...)
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  12. (1 other version)Kierkegaard's Use of German Philosophy.Roe Fremstedal - 2015 - In Jon Stewart (ed.), A Companion to Kierkegaard. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 36–49.
    This chapter deals with German philosophy from Leibniz to Fichte, which formed an important part of Kierkegaard's intellectual background. In this period German philosophy came to dominate Danish philosophy. However, Kierkegaard's attitude toward his German predecessors is generally ambivalent, involving both critique and admiration. Although Kierkegaard was fluent in German and very familiar with classic German philosophy, his use of this philosophy is somewhat eclectic and assimilated to his own ends. Kierkegaard uses his German predecessors to develop a distinction between (...)
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  13. Kierkegaard on Hope as Essential to Selfhood.Roe Fremstedal - 2019 - In Claudia Blöser & Titus Stahl (eds.), The Moral Psychology of Hope: An Introduction (The Moral Psychology of the Emotions). Rowman & Littlefield International. pp. 75-92.
    Kierkegaard differs from his contemporaries Schopenhauer and Nietzsche by emphasizing the value of hope and its importance for human agency and selfhood (practical identity). In The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard argues that despair involves a loss of hope and courage that is extremely common. Moreover, despair involves being double-minded by having an incoherent practical identity (although it need not be recognized as such if the agent mistakes his identity). A coherent practical identity, by contrast, requires wholehearted commitment towards ideals and (...)
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  14. Critical remarks on Religion in the public sphere' – Habermas between Kant and Kierkegaard.Roe Fremstedal - 2009 - Etikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics 1 (1):27-47.
    This article provides a critical assessment of Habermas’s recent work on religion and its role in the public sphere by comparing it to Kant’s phi-losophy of religion on the one hand and that of Kierkegaard on the other. It is argued that although Habermas is in many ways a Kantian, he diverges from Kant when it comes to religion, by taking a position which comes closer to the Kierkegaardian view that religiousness belongs to private faith rather than philosophy. This has (...)
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  15. Kant and Existentialism: Inescapable Freedom and Self-Deception.Roe Fremstedal - 2020 - In Jon Stewart (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism and Existentialism (Palgrave Handbooks in German Idealism). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 51-75.
    Kant’s critical philosophy represents a rudimentary existentialism, or a proto-existentialism, in the following respects: He emphasizes human finitude, limits our knowledge, and argues that human consciousness is characterized by mineness (Jemeinigkeit). He introduces the influential concept of autonomy, something that lead to controversies about constructivism and anti-realism in meta-ethics and anticipated problems concerning decisionism in Existentialism. Kant makes human freedom the central philosophical issue, arguing (in the incorporation thesis) that freedom is inescapable for human agents. He even holds that awareness (...)
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  16. Why Be Moral? A Kierkegaardian Approach.Roe Fremstedal - 2015 - In Beatrix Himmelmann (ed.), Why Be Moral? An Argument from the Human Condition in Response to Hobbes and Nietzsche. pp. 173-198.
    The present text focuses on what resources Kierkegaard offers for dealing with the question “Why be moral?” I sketch an approach to this question by presenting Kierkegaard’s methodology, his negative arguments against the aesthete and the motive he offers for being moral. I conclude that Kierkegaard does provide motivation for assessing ourselves in moral terms, although his approach is more relevant to deontological ethics and virtue ethics than consequentialism.
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  17. Kierkegaard’s Post-Kantian Approach to Anthropology and Selfhood.Roe Fremstedal - 2019 - In Patrick Stokes, Eleanor Helms & Adam Buben (eds.), The Kierkegaardian Mind (Routledge Philosophical Minds). New York: Routledge Philosophical Minds. pp. 319-330.
    This chapter relates Kierkegaard’s views on anthropology and selfhood to Kantian and post-Kantian philosophical anthropology. It focuses on Kierkegaard’s contribution to anthropology, and discusses the relation between philosophical and theological anthropology in Kierkegaard. The chapter gives a synopsis of these issues by focusing on The Sickness unto Death, although important elements of this work are anticipated by Either/Or, The Concept of Anxiety and Concluding Unscientific Postscript. After an historical introduction and brief remarks on Kierkegaard’s method, the chapter moves to human (...)
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  18. 'Hidden Inwardness’ and ‘Subjectivity is Truth’: Kant and Kierkegaard on Moral Psychology and Religious Pragmatism.Roe Fremstedal - 2019 - In Lee C. Barrett & Peter Ajda (eds.), Kierkegaard in Context: A Festschrift for Jon Stewart (Mercer Kierkegaard Series). Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. pp. 112-129.
    This chapter sketches a reconstruction of the concept of hidden inwardness that argues that the concept refers to ethico-religious characters that are expressed in deeds and words, rather than a private inner world. By relying on the distinction between morality and legality, I argue that “hidden inwardness” is not compatible with all kinds of behavior and that it is better described negatively than positively. The concept of hidden inwardness need therefore not be as problematic as is often assumed, since it (...)
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  19. Morality and Prudence: A Case for Substantial Overlap and Limited Conflict.Roe Fremstedal - 2018 - Journal of Value Inquiry 52 (1):1-16.
    In this paper, I discuss and reject both the idea of a moral order, in which morality and prudence generally coincide, and the idea of a tragic world, in which morality and prudence generally collide. I then discuss and defend an intermediary position in which morality and prudence converge substantially. It is argued that moral agency presuppose friction that prevents morality from coinciding perfectly with prudence. Still, morality and prudence should not be thought of as being fundamentally incompatible, because this (...)
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  20. The Moral Makeup of the World: Kierkegaard and Kant on the Relation between Virtue and Happiness in this World.Roe Fremstedal - 2012 - Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 2012 (1).
    While it is commonly held that natural evil and suffering undermine religious belief, Kant and Kierkegaard both argue that religion and ethics presuppose discontentment, hardship, and uncertainty. Both argue that moral purity requiresthat this world be imperfect both in the sense of having restricted knowledgeand in the sense that virtue does not lead to happiness. Thus, both thinkersmake constitutive assumptions about the moral structure of the world on prac-tical grounds. But whereas Kant insists that there must be some connection inthis (...)
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  21. Anthropology in Kierkegaard and Kant: The Synthesis of Facticity and Ideality vs. Moral Character.Roe Fremstedal - 2011 - Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 2011 (1):19-50.
    This article deals with how moral freedom relates to historicity and contingency by comparing Kierkegaard's theory of the anthropological synthesis to Kant's concept of moral character. The comparison indicates that there are more Kantian elements in Kierkegaard's anthropology than shown by earlier scholarship. More specifically, both Kant and Kierkegaard see a true change in the way one lives as involving not only a revolution in the way one thinks, but also that one takes over—and tries to reform—both oneself and human (...)
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