ABSTRACT

There is hardly a term to which Kierkegaard gives more attention than “love.” His writings are full of references to God as ‘love,’ and he repeatedly asserts that our right relation to God can be established only through ‘love.’ Kierkegaard’s concept of love is complex, giving room for diverse interpretations. In epistemological questions, Kierkegaard appears most clearly as what we might call ‘a sceptical logician,’ separating radically reason and passions. On Kierkegaard’s view, sceptical ideas are necessary in several respects. First, they can cast doubt on the Hegelian belief in reason’s capacity to handle existential matters. Second, the sceptical ideas implicit in the Kantian epistemological tradition can account for the necessary concept of transcendence. Third, correct logical thinking can increase the passions, the only means for man to reach the right contact with God, as known from the Augustinian, neo-Platonic tradition. One of the most important concepts in the literature on Kierkegaard is paradox.