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Single Idea 5651

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

Full Idea

Kierkegaard developed the idea of 'truth as subjectivity'; the traditional conceptions of truth - correspondence or coherence - he regarded as equally empty, not because false, but because tautologous; truth ceases to be empty when related to a subject.

Gist of Idea

Traditional views of truth are tautologies, and truth is empty without a subject

Source

report of Søren Kierkegaard (Either/Or: a fragment of life [1843]) by Roger Scruton - Short History of Modern Philosophy Ch.13

Book Ref

Scruton,Roger: 'A Short History of Modern Philosophy' [ARK 1985], p.189


A Reaction

It strikes me that the correspondence theory of truth also involves a subject. If you become too obsessed with the subject, you lose the concept of truth. You need a concept of the non-subject too. Truth concerns the contents of thought.


The 9 ideas from 'Either/Or: a fragment of life'

Philosophy fails to articulate the continual becoming of existence [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
Traditional views of truth are tautologies, and truth is empty without a subject [Kierkegaard, by Scruton]
Reason is just abstractions, so our essence needs a subjective 'leap of faith' [Kierkegaard, by Scruton]
There are aesthetic, ethical and religious subjectivity [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
Kierkegaard prioritises the inward individual, rather than community [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
Faith is like a dancer's leap, going up to God, but also back to earth [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
For me time stands still, and I with it [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
What matters is not right choice, but energy, earnestness and pathos in the choosing [Kierkegaard]
The plebeians bore others; only the nobility bore themselves [Kierkegaard]