Tro og beslutsomhed

Abstract

Kierkegaard and Heidegger agree in seeing the prominence
of human existence in the reflexive concern for itself and the anxiety
which follows from recognizing the abyss of possibility and nothingness.
However, Heidegger misses a notion of the formal structure of being
in Kierkegaard’s work, which he conceives to merely offer a theological
solution to questions that only a phenomenological outlook might
provide on neutral grounds. Kierkegaard, on the other hand, lends his
voice to forms of existence by which the “existentiell” dimension rests
on the awakening of the Spirit as the condition of possibility. Contrary
to Heidegger, Kierkegaard does not regard the fulfi llment of existence
as something the subject can decide for itself without falling into despair.
Using the literary figure of Hans Castorp from the novel Zauberberg
by Thomas Mann, the article aims to show how easily the decision
to confront life with love falls back into a spell of escapism, leaving
Kierkegaard with the upper hand in pointing out the inadequacy of the
human spirit, including philosophical endeavors, to ground itself.