more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 16005

[filed under theme 3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 8. Subjective Truth ]

Full Idea

The thing is to find a truth which is true for me - the idea for which I can live and die. I still recognise an imperative of knowledge, but it must be taken up into my life, which I now recognise as the most important thing.

Gist of Idea

I recognise knowledge, but it is the truth by which I can live and die that really matters

Source

Søren Kierkegaard (Letter to Peter Wilhelm Lund [1835], J-1A)

Book Ref

Kierkegaard,Søren: 'The Essential Kierkegaard', ed/tr. Hong,Howard/Edna [Princeton ], p.8

A Reaction

A quintessentially existential idea. Note that he still considers objective knowledge to be quite important, but how we act and relate to those ideas is what really matters for us human beings. [SY]

The 15 ideas with the same theme [no truth, apart from the way individuals see things]:

14040 Observation and applied thought are always true [Epicurus]
3610 Truth is clear and distinct conception - of which it is hard to be sure [Descartes]
2266 My general rule is that everything that I perceive clearly and distinctly is true [Descartes]
4301 Someone may think a thing is 'clear and distinct', but be wrong [Leibniz on Descartes]
5641 For Spinoza, 'adequacy' is the intrinsic mark of truth [Spinoza, by Scruton]
13157 Choose the true hypothesis, which is the most intelligible one [Leibniz]
5022 We hold a proposition true if we are ready to follow it, and can't see any objections [Leibniz]
5651 Traditional views of truth are tautologies, and truth is empty without a subject [Kierkegaard, by Scruton]
22094 Subjective truth can only be sustained by repetition [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
16005 I recognise knowledge, but it is the truth by which I can live and die that really matters [Kierkegaard]
20313 The highest truth we can get is uncertainty held fast by an inward passion [Kierkegaard]
24104 We don't create logic, time and space! The mind obeys laws because they are true [Nietzsche]
5652 True beliefs are those which augment one's power [Nietzsche, by Scruton]
19144 'Epistemic' truth depends what rational creatures can verify [Davidson]
8705 Anti-realists see truth as our servant, and epistemically contrained [Friend]