Full Idea
Being an individual man is a thing that has been abolished, and every speculative philosopher confuses himself with humanity at large, whereby he becomes infinitely great - and at the same time nothing at all.
Gist of Idea
Speculative philosophy loses the individual in a vast vision of humanity
Source
Søren Kierkegaard (Concluding Unscientific Postscript [1846], 'Lessing')
Book Reference
Kierkegaard,Søren: 'A Kierkegaard Anthology', ed/tr. Bretall,Robert [Princeton 1946], p.206
A Reaction
Compare Idea 4840. This is a beautiful statement of the motivation for existentialism. The sort of philosophers who love mathematics (Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, Russell) love losing themselves in abstractions. This is the rebellion.
Related Idea
Idea 4840 Reason perceives things under a certain form of eternity [Spinoza]