World that Matters Response to Poul Houel Narve Strand (N6rsko) The paper reads like an apology. It's an answer to those who'd say Kierkegaard leaves us "worldless". That his hang-up on the single individual and existential communication totally undermines ordinary give and take. human society.2 The linchpin: A concept of history. Only a sacred past will change the West and its "rugged" ways it seems. My focus will be on the way Houe assumes a link here between transformative history and politics. As a philosophea I like being reminded about the weight of stories. Political philosophy has been caught up with reasons, rules, productive relations for too long. It's almost deaf to the role of storytelling in public. How cases are made here, arguing from commonly accepted elements and themes. How narratives are weaved together, by the players themselves, in real time too. There's nothing "irrational" about this. Itt a form of shared deliberation, problem-solving in fact. Stories and characters inspire us; make us want to imitate them. These public, practical uses of history are all reasonable. Theyte found among early hunter gatherers, I believe, in Greek city states, in Northern Europe in Roman and Norse times, and in Modern democracies.3 Matters that Matter: Ketkegoad, History, and the Historical as Facts of Fiction. Given at the 6th lnternational'Kierkegaard Conference, St. Olaf College, 29th of iune, 2010. Some critical voices: Cavell, 5., Existentialism and Analytic Philosophy,inThemes out of School (University of Chicago Press, 1988): 195-234; Kierkegaard's On Authority and Revelation, in MustWe MeanWhatWe Say?,2d edition (Cambridge UB 2002): 163-79; Mackey, L.,Kierkegaard: A Kind of Poet (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972 (al; The Loss of World in Kierkegaard's Ethrcs, in Kierkegaard: A Collection of Criticol Essays, Thompson, J. (ed.) (Anchor Books, 1972 (b): 266-87; Marino, G, Kierkegoard in the Present Age (Marquette UP,2001);The Place of Reason in Kierkegaard's Ethics,in Soren Kierkegaod: Ctiticol Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Conway, D. W. (ed.), vol. 1 (Routledge, 2003):166-79. For the Greek, see Arendt, H.,The Human Condition,2d edition (University of Chicago Press, 1998); Between Past and Future (Penguin, 2006). Her take on politics as the sharing of words and deeds can be applied, mutatis mutondis,tothese other societies that had (or has) a political life too. For the rise of the public sphere in the Modern state: Habermas, ).,The Structural Transformotion of the Public Sphere (MlT Press, 1991). 6o Nenw Srn-q.Nn One problem: This isnt Kierkegaard's way of modeling things. He likes to say het being true to Aristotelian categories of thinking. But Aristotle operates with three basic forms of human activity not twoa: (I) Theoria,'speculation' (keyed to mental virtues like episftm| and sophia). *Contemplative. This kind of activity is insular, self-sufficient, private even; (2) Poi4sis, 'shaping' (steered by expert know-how, the virtue of technQ. *Transformative. This type of activity is unilateral, non-public; (3) Praxis, doing' (voluntary, chosen); judging' (by deliberation, phron1sis). "Practical. This activity is public, genuinely two-way, community-oriented. It takes place between free and equal agents; not between writers and readers, or patrons and clients, or rulers and subjects, or between armed prophets or dMne apostles and their flock, or between God-men and their worshipper. It's absent from the Kierkegaardian corpus as a whole. It's always non-basic here - 'fake"5 From an Aristotelian point ofview ofcourse, Plato (and Socrates too) was blind to the concept of praxis, or he assimilated it to theoretic insight and/or the master crafts instead. This made him blur the line between political life on the one hand and the academia, the household and the workshop on the other. For Aristotle that's a bad move. It means a complete leveling of politics, of active citizenship, and so of human agency itself. The public is turned into a grey, shapeless mass here that's being worked f 'm drawing on Jacques Thaminiuax's first-rate work (Poetics, Speculation, and Judgment (State University of New York Press, 1 993): 1-19, 154-7). Cf. Aristotle's Ethics 1O94a; 1096b; 1147a (praxis); 1 1 41 b-1 1 42a (phron €sis). The 'bther side of the isle" isn't disputing this either it seems. See e.g. Ferreira, M. )., Asymmetry and Self-Love: The Chollenge to Reciprocity and Equality, Kierkegaard Studies 1 998 (De Gruyter): 42-59; Soltoft, P., Anthropology ond Ethics. The Connection between Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity osthe Basis of a Kierkegoordion Anthropology,inConway (2003),ll 277-84; Westphal, M., Kierkegaard's Teleological Suspension of Religiousness B, in Foundations of Kerkegaard's Vision of Community. Religion, Ethics, ond Politics in Kierkegaard (Humanities Press, I 992): 1 I 029;Commanded Love ond Moral Autonomy:The Kierkegaord-Hobermas Debate,fhe Kierkegaard Yearbook (Walter de Gruyter, 1998):1-22. V rrnwt Krnnrncelnoe / IN rsE sHADow or KrnnxEce,tRo 6l on by experts and people who claim to have superior insight and authority. A society that scraps interaction and sound judgment like this quickly falls prey to deception and fear-violence. This is the kind of society Plato gets, that he wants. To more liberal-minded thinkers though, that makes him a key architect of the closed society; of totalitarianism even.6 I think Kierkegaard takes much the same path. He has to in a way. He's tyrng to make Christianity a real factor in Western life and thought. The concept of praxis and real, citizen politics was lost early on in the Middle East it seems.T It isnt found anywhere in the Abrahamic religions. That's why Kierkegaard "forgets" Aristotle here. He may still be against Plato and Hegel: Theoria shouldnt be tied either to history or politics. They're all of one mind though in seeing both as transformative activities poi€sis.8 Kierkegaard's model is more "pure-bred" than theirs, more radical than Marxism too in a way. There's no plan sighted by Master Craftsmen on this picture, no human nature to be shaped by socio-historical forces.e Existence over essence, projection over realiry will over reciprocity:lO This kind of thinking is bound to erase the line between the merely human or ordinary and the divine, pointing forward to people like Sartre and Fanon and key radical movements of the last 60 years.lr It isnt that Kierkegaard's "poetic", faith-based history is dehumanizing or dangerous For Aristotle! digs at Plato: Politics 1261a-b;1263b;1265b;1269a;1274b;1275b;1277b (phron€sis and ruling); 1278b; 1279a; 1280b. For the levelling of politics and the descent into totalitarianism: Arendt,H.,TheOriginsof Totalitarianism (Books 11C,2009). For Plato as a theorist of the closed society: Popper, K., Open Society ond its Enemies,2 vols. (Routledge, 2002) Seee.g.Kuhrt, A.,TheAncientNeorEostc.3000-330BC,2vols.(Routled9e,2002). For the link between Plato and Hegel, see Taminiaux (1 993): 1-19,127tf. For the notion of species-being and the mind as a product of society and hislory: Economical andPhilosophical Monuscriptsof 1844,pp.83-93;TheGermanldeology, pp. 150ff. (TheMarxEngels Reader,2nd ed., Tucker, R. C. (ed.) (W. W. Norton & Company, 1978). Mackey:"Kierkegaard. . . says "it is the supreme glory of freedom that it has only with itself to do" ICOD p. 971. But human freedom, thus absolutized, becomes indistinguishable from the omnipotence of God. Kierkegaardian freedom does generate its own possibilities" (1972(b): 283). See also Rumble, V., Ihe Orocle\ Ambiguity: Freedom and Original Sin in Kierkegaord'sfhe Concept of Anxiety, Soundings 25 (Winter, 1992):6o5-25; Sacrifice and Domination: Kantian and KierkegaardianThemes of Self-Overcoming, Philosophy and Social Criticism, 20,3 (1994): 19-35; To Be os No-One: Kierkegoord and Climachus on the Art of lndirect Communicotion, lnternational Journal of Philosophical Studies, 3, 2 (1995):307-21; Etemity Lies Beneath: Autonomy and Finitude in Kierkegaatd's EoilyWiting5 The Journal of the History of Philosophy, 3s, 1 (1 997): 83-l 03. Cf. Cf. Sartre! Ih e Singular Universol, in Thompson (1972):230-65. For the ties between Sartre, Fanon, and revolutionary movements, see also We Will Force You to be Ftee, paft 3 of the documentary Ih e Trap (BBC, 2007). il 62 Nlnvs SrneNo necessarily. Christianity may well be a force for good in human society and in shaping group identity.rz As apolitical ueed though it isnt of much use: Our world doesnt need saving.13 l'm much impressed by the way Kierkegaard's writings acted as a refuge for individuals living under totalitarian, Soviet rule for example. See e.g. Miihrik, T. & Kr6lik, R., Kierkegaardove paradoxy a ich proroch,i vplyv no mysleniev Strednej Eur6pe,in Kierkegaord as Challenge to the Conte m porary Worl d (201 1). Democratic or open societies are based on separating political conceptions from illiberal, comprehensive doctrines (religious or secular). They go against proxis, negotiation, pluralism. That's because they demand total obedience or commitment (e.9. Rawls, J., Introduction to Politicol Liberalism, 2nd edition (Columbia UB 1996)).