Eternal Happiness by Way of Subjective Reflection

Eternal Happiness By Way of Subjective Reflection

Climacus commends the way of subjective reflection over the way of objective reflection to the person who is interested in obtaining eternal happiness because, for the existing individual, it is the only way to do so.

This paper will deal with the claim that eternal happiness can be obtained by way of subjective reflection, rather than objective reflection, which is found in Soren Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript To Philosophical Fragments. Writing under the pseudonym of Johannes Climacus, Kierkegaard discusses how eternal happiness can be achieved. Climacus' unique position and emphasis on the human being as an existing individual leads to his subjective basis for truth. I will begin by clarifying the terms Climacus uses in his argument, and then go on to defend his commendation of subjective reflection over objective reflection.

Before I attend to Climacus' claim, I want to address some of the important background information, from which his claim follows. Climacus describes himself as an ordinary man and states that he is interested in how one obtains the eternal happiness that Christianity promises. He proposes that there is a dual existence to truth. Truth can be viewed as both objective and subjective. The term "objective" deals with the dispassionate and the knowledge that the single individual can gain about the world. For Climacus, the objective question is about the truth of Christianity. The term "subjective," on the other hand, deals with the passionate and personal way to knowledge. The subjective question, then, is about the individual's relation to Christianity (p. 16-17).

According to Climacus, the individual can think about truth in two ways- by way of subjective reflection and by way of objective reflection. Climacus writes,

"To objective reflection, truth becomes something objective, an object, and the point is to disregard the subject. To subjective reflection, truth becomes an appropriation, inwardness, subjectivity, and the point is to immerse oneself, existing, in subjectivity." (p. 192)

In other words, objective truth is the object, or what, with respect to an indifferent object, while subjective truth is the how of the relation toward the object, or truth. When objective reflection is used pertaining to the question about the knowledge of God, what is reflected upon is the truth of God. Subjective reflection, however, requires that "Ð'...the individual relates himself to something in such a way that his relation is in truth a God-relation." (p. 199)

The individual is in a constant state of becoming according to Climacus. To reflect upon truth subjectively involves being committed to one's existence, and thus to one's eternal happiness. Climacus writes,

"The way of objective reflection turns the