ABSTRACT
The Danish adjective teleologisk (from the noun Teleologi), like the English “teleological,” derives from two Greek words: τέλος, meaning a goal or purpose, and λόγος, meaning a word, reason or account. So “teleological” means “on account of a goal” or “explained by a goal.” The Danish noun Suspension, like the English equivalent “suspension,” derives from the Latin verb suspendere, meaning to “hang up,” “let hover,” “cease,” or “cancel.” In Danish, as in English, this term is often used in a legal or political context, as when we say that a leader suspends the constitution, or a higher court suspends the ruling of a lower court. So a “teleological suspension” would be a case in which something is cancelled, overruled, and set aside for the sake of some goal or purpose, specifically a higher, more important goal or purpose. What is suspended for a higher purpose here is “the ethical,” in Danish det Ethiske, an adjectival noun from the adjective ethisk, meaning “ethical” or “moral,” deriving from the Latin ethica and the Greek words ἐθικός (“customary”) and ἔθος (“custom”). The phrase “teleological suspension of the ethical” is presumably Kierkegaard’s own coinage. Put simply, it means that the goal of acting ethically is set aside for a higher, more important goal.
