Kierkegaard and Kant on Radical Evil and the Highest Good

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1 Kierkegaard and Kant on Radical Evil and the Highest Good

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3 Kierkegaard and Kant on Radical Evil and the Highest Good Virtue, Happiness, and the Kingdom of God Roe Fremstedal Professor, University of Tromsø, Norway

4 Roe Fremstedal 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fremstedal, Roe, 1977 Kierkegaard and Kant on radical evil and the highest good : virtue, happiness, and the kingdom of God / Roe Fremstedal, Professor, University of Tromsø, Norway. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Kierkegaard, Søren, Kant, Immanuel, Good and evil. 4. Good and evil Religious aspects. 5. Ethics. I. Title. B4377.F dc

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7 Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations viii x Introduction 1 1 Methodological Considerations: Contextual and Analytic Approaches to the History of Philosophy 5 2 Original Sin and Radical Evil: Moral Freedom and Anxiety 22 3 Anthropology and Morality: Facticity and Moral Character 55 4 History and Morality: The Moral Structure of the World 76 5 The Highest Good: Virtue, Happiness, and the Kingdom of God 94 6 The Moral Argument for the Existence of God and Immortality: Natural Theology and Divine Revelation Religious Faith and Divine Grace: Human and Divine Agency Divine Revelation and Christianity: Rationalism and Supernaturalism Religious Hope: Moral Agency and the Expectancy of the Good Religion and Metaethics: Divine Commands and Autonomy as the Source of Moral Obligations Closing Discussion: Overlap and Influence 224 Notes 241 Select Bibliography 303 Index 319 vii

8 Acknowledgments Parts of this monograph have been presented to audiences in Trondheim, Oslo, Copenhagen, Reikjavik, Munich, and Northfield, MN. I want to thank these audiences for useful comments, and to give special thanks to the following persons: Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, Helge Høibraaten, Kjell Eyvind Johansen, Lars Johan Materstvedt, Bjørn Myskja, Christoph Schulte, and Jon Stewart. Thanks are also due to the following institutions: Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, University of Tromsø The Arctic University of Norway; Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; The Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College; The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, University of Copenhagen; and The Norwegian Non-fiction Writers and Translators Association. Finally, I am very grateful to the original publishers for permission to reprint material that has been previously published. Chapter 2 has drawn upon material from within Roe Fremstedal, Original Sin and Radical Evil: Kierkegaard and Kant, Kantian Review, Vol. 17(2), 2012, pp Reproduced with permission of Cambridge University Press. Chapter 3 has drawn upon material from within Roe Fremstedal, Anthropology in Kierkegaard and Kant: The Synthesis of Facticity and Ideality vs. Moral Character, in Heiko Schulz, Jon Stewart, and Karl Verstrynge (eds), Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011, pp Chapter 4 has drawn upon material from within Roe Fremstedal, The Moral Makeup of the World: Kierkegaard and Kant on the Relation between Virtue and Happiness, in Heiko Schulz, Jon Stewart, and Karl Verstrynge (eds), Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2012, pp Chapter 5 contains excerpts from Roe Fremstedal, The Concept of the Highest Good in Kierkegaard and Kant, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 69(3), 2011, pp Reproduced with kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media. Chapter 5 also contains a quote from Jacqueline Marina, Making Sense of Kant s Highest Good, in Gerhard Funke, Manfred Baum, Bernd viii

9 Acknowledgments ix Dörflinger, and Thomas Seebohm (eds), Kant-Studien, Vol. 91(3), Berlin: de Gruyter 2000, pp , pp. 346f. Chapter 6 has drawn upon material from within Roe Fremstedal, The Moral Argument for the Existence of God and Immortality: Kierkegaard and Kant, Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 41(1), 2013, pp , Wiley- Blackwell, Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc. Chapter 7 has drawn upon material from within Roe Fremstedal, Kierkegaard s Double Movement of Faith and Kant s Moral Faith, Religious Studies, Vol. 48(2), 2012, pp Reproduced with permission from Cambridge University Press. Chapter 9 is partially based on Roe Fremstedal, Kierkegaard on the Metaphysics of Hope, Heythrop Journal, Vol. 53(1), 2012, pp , Wiley-Blackwell.

10 List of Abbreviations I Works by Kierkegaard I refer both to Kierkegaard s Danish texts and English translations. In a very few cases where the relevant Danish text is not included in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, I reference Søren Kierkegaards Papirer. When citing Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, I refer to volume and page number (for example SKS 1, 61). In the case of Søren Kierkegaards Papirer, I follow the standard format: volume and tome number, entry category and number, and page number where appropriate (for example, Pap. VI B 53, 13). When the relevant text is available in English, I also refer to Kierkegaard s Writings and Journals and Papers (both trans. by Howard Hong and Edna Hong), alternatively to Kierkegaard s Journals and Notebooks. Kierkegaard s Writings includes references to the first edition of Samlede Værker in the margin, and volume 7 of Journals and Papers provides cross-references to Søren Kierkegaards Papirer. For a concordance list that covers the different editions of Samlede Værker as well as Søren Kierkegaards Papirer and Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, see For an electronic edition of SKS, see I make use of the following standard abbreviations: ASKB Herman Peter Rohde, Auktionsprotokol over Søren Kierkegaards Bogsamling, Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Bibliotek BA The Book on Adler, Princeton: Princeton University Press, CA Concept of Anxiety, Princeton: Princeton University Press, CD Christian Discourses, Princeton: Princeton University Press, CI Concept of Irony, Princeton: Princeton University Press, CUP1 Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, vol.1. EO1 Either/Or, Part I, Princeton: Princeton University Press, EO2 Either/Or, Part II, Princeton: Princeton University Press, EUD Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Princeton: Princeton University Press, FSE For Self-Examination, Princeton: Princeton University Press, FT Fear and Trembling, Princeton: Princeton University Press, x

11 List of Abbreviations xi JP Søren Kierkegaard s Journals and Papers, vols 1 7, Bloomington: Indiana University Press (unless otherwise stated, references are to the numbering of the passages). KJN Kierkegaard s Journals and Notebooks, ed. by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, David Kangas, Bruce H. Kirmmse, George Pattison, Vanessa Rumble, and Brian Söderquist, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007ff. M The Moment and Late Writings, Princeton: Princeton University Press, R Repetition, Princeton: Princeton University Press, Pap. Søren Kierkegaards Papirer, 2 nd. ed., vols 1 16, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, PC Practice in Christianity, Princeton: Princeton University Press, PF Philosophical Fragments, Princeton: Princeton University Press, SKS Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, vols 1 28, Copenhagen: Gad, SLW Stages on Life s Way, Princeton: Princeton University Press, SUD Sickness unto Death, Princeton: Princeton University Press, TA Two Ages, Princeton: Princeton University Press, TD Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions, Princeton: Princeton University Press, UD Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Princeton: Princeton University Press, WL Works of Love, Princeton: Princeton University Press, II Works by Kant With the exception of Critique of Pure Reason, all references to Kant utilize the pagination in the German Academy edition of Kant s works, using volume and page number (for example, Ak 2:268). I use the translations in the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant (vols 1 16, ed. by Paul Guyer and Allen Wood, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997ff.). For an overview of the Academy edition, see manchester.edu/kant/helps/acaded.htm. For an electronic edition of volumes 1 23, see Finally, it should also be mentioned that I have changed letter spacing and bold into italics when quoting Kant. I make use of the following abbreviations: A Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, in Anthropology, History, and Education, ed. by Günter Zöller and Robert

12 xii List of Abbreviations Louden, trans. by Mary Gregor, Paul Guyer, Robert Louden, Holly Wilson, Allen Wood, Günter Zöller, and Arnulf Zweig, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 (Vol. 7, pp. 117ff. in Ak). A/B Critique of Pure Reason, ed. and trans. by Paul Guyer and Allen Wood, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007 (references are to the A and B editions). Ak Akademie-Ausgabe, Gesammelte Schriften, vols 1 29, Berlin: Reimer, later de Gruyter, 1900ff. C Correspondence, ed. and trans. by Arnulf Zweig, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, CBH Conjectures on the Beginning of Human History, in Anthropology, History, and Education. CF The Conflict of the Faculties, in Religion and Rational Theology, ed. and trans. by Allen Wood and George Di Giovanni, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, CPJ Critique of the Power of Judgment, ed. by Paul Guyer, trans. by Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, CPR Critique of Practical Reason, in Practical Philosophy, ed. and trans. by Mary Gregor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, D Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics, in Theoretical Philosophy , ed. and trans. by David Walford and Ralf Meerbote, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, EAT The End of All Things, in Religion and Rational Theology. G Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, in Practical Philosophy. I Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan End, in Anthropology, History, and Education. LA Lectures on Anthropology, ed. and trans. by Allen Wood and Robert Louden, trans. by Robert Clewis and G. Felicitas Munzel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, LE Lectures on Ethics, ed. by Peter Heath and Jerome B. Schneewind, trans. by Peter Heath, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, LL Lectures on Logic, ed. and trans. by J. Michael Young, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, LM Lectures on Metaphysics, ed. and trans. by Karl Ameriks and Steve Naragon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, LP Lectures on Pedagogy, in Anthropology, History, and Education.

13 List of Abbreviations xiii LPDR Lectures on the Philosophical Doctrine of Religion, in Religion and Rational Theology. M On the Miscarriage of all Philosophical Trials in Theodicy, in Religion and Rational Theology. MM The Metaphysics of Morals, in Practical Philosophy. NF Notes and Fragments, ed. by Paul Guyer, trans. by Curtis Bowman, Paul Guyer, and Frederick Rauscher, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, O What Does It Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking?, in Religion and Rational Theology. PP Towards Perpetual Peace, in Practical Philosophy. R Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, in Religion and Rational Theology. RA Reflexionen zur Anthropologie (Vol. 15, pp. 55ff. in Ak). TP On the Common Saying: This May Be True in Theory but It Is of No Use in Practice, in Practical Philosophy.