Comparing Kierkegaard's Fear And Trembling

Kierkegaard wrote Fear and Trembling during a time when Hegel’s philosophical system dominated the lives of most ordinary people. Briefly put, Hegelian philosophy stresses the importance of the universal (or the ethical) over the particular. The universal is representative of a set of ethical laws (don’t steal, don’t kill, etc.) that must be followed by everyone, regardless of age or social status. The particular refers to one’s individual desires and passions, and Hegel includes faith in this category. Kierkegaard writes F&T under an alias, “Silentio” (I will be using the two names interchangeably), and uses this name to write about what true faith is, targeting a population that is brainwashed to believe in faith merely as an idea that is

He does not directly describe what a knight of faith is, but rather, he uses irony and sarcasm to describe what a knight of faith is not. Knowing that the world around him viewed faith as an idea that could be cheaply inherited, he writes ironically in a way that mocks this splintered version of faith. He could’ve communicated the need for action directly, but he was aware that those who do not want to act on faith deliberately focus on other aspects of the message. In other words, Kierkegaard knew that if he wrote a book directly criticizing his peer’s misunderstanding of faith, then they would blindly ignore its application to their own lives. To effectively communicate with his readers, he writes in a way that seems to support what the readers believe. He praises the modern aesthetic culture so excessively that it comes off as degrading to the reader (as seen in III, 131). He lures his audience in by praising those characteristics that define the knight of infinite resignation, with the intention of ultimately destroying their shallow view of faith. I believe that this strategy is successful for Kierkegaard, because trying to tell someone about true faith directly is almost always a fruitless mission. Faith cannot be learned or attained by reading what some random guy wrote in his book. Rather, Kierkegaard attempts to undermine, even mock, the version of faith that the world around him believed in, so that they may come to an understanding that faith is not about convenience. Rather, it is about courage and action. I agree with Kierkegaard’s criticisms, and I believe he took the only effective route in communicating