Fear And Trembling By Socrates: A Knight Of Resignation

Socrates – A Knight of Resignation

Throughout Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling he describes two types of people. The first is a knight of faith and the second is a knight of infinite resignation. While a knight of faith grabs hold of the impossible and clings to it, believing that it will be fulfilled, a knight of infinite resignation realizes that the goal is impossible and resigns to it. However, despite this acquiescence a knight of infinite resignation builds the meaning of his life around that goal while simultaneously realizing that he will never obtain it. While Abraham encompasses the qualities of a knight of faith, Socrates exhibits more traits that would characterize him as a knight of infinite resignation. Socrates’ idea
of the forms, his view on death, and his allegory of the cave, all point to the fact that he best embodies a knight of infinite resignation. The primary goal of a knight of faith is to make his life meaningful. He leaves worldly understanding to obtain faith, believes in clear finite results not focusing on the future but on the present moment, and believes that the highest level of meaning is the belief in the absurd. Abraham encompasses all of these criteria in the book of Job when he sets off to sacrifice his son Isaac. He first receives a call from God telling him to sacrifice his only son. This call tests his faith and asks him to step away from worldly understanding and give his trust to God. Kierkegaard explains the first characteristic of leaving behind worldly understanding when he writes, “[Abraham] left one thing behind, and took another with him. He left behind his worldly understanding and took with him his faith” (50). When Abraham left his city in the pursuit of sacrificing his son he exhibited full trust in God. Abraham realized that this calling from God was impossible but he didn’t question God in the least. In this way Abraham demonstrated the second characteristic of a knight of faith. Kierkegaard writes, “Abraham had faith for this life. Yes, had his faith only been for a future life it would indeed have been easier to cast everything aside in order to hasten out this world to which he did not belong”(54). Abraham trusting in this life rather than the life after death shows the way that he is focusing on the here and now rather than the future which is a prominent aspect of a knight of faith. Lastly, Abraham stuck to his task even after realizing how absurd it was. This is of important notation as the highest level of meaning for a knight of faith is belief in the absurd, “he knew it was the hardest sacrifice that could be demanded of him; but he also knew that no sacrifice was too hard when God demanded it” (55). In trusting that God’s absurd request would turn out well Abraham embodied the characteristics of a knight of faith as he took a leap of faith. Conversely, a knight of infinite resignation is placed as the final step before a person becomes a knight of faith. A knight of infinite resignation realizes that a goal is impossible but, unlike the knight of faith, the knight of infinite resignation submits to the impossible goal and doesn’t attempt to obtain it. Instead, he internalizes the goal and centers the meaning of his life on that goal. Unlike the knight of faith, a knight of infinite resignation doesn’t believe that the ultimate meaning can be achieved. Kierkegaard describes the mindset of a knight of infinite resignation as he writes, “fools and young people talk about everything being possible for a human being. But that is a great mistake. Everything is possible spiritually speaking, but in the finite world there is much that is not possible,” (73). This idea emphasizes the fact that a knight of resignation doesn’t believe that everything can be understood, yet he centers his life on these unattainable goals. One example of why this definition of a knight of infinite resignation exemplifies the characteristics of Socrates is his idea of the forms. Socrates believes that the key to reaching ultimate knowledge is in knowing the forms. However, Socrates realizes that it is impossible to fully know the forms and, instead of working to know the forms he instead resigns to the fact that he will never truly know them. This acquiescence shows Socrates characteristics of the knight of infinite resignation. A knight of infinite resignation is further explained as Kierkegaard describes the knight’s devotion for this unachievable goal he writes, “for the knight [of infinite resignation] will then, in the first place, have the strength to concentrate the whole of his life’s content and the meaning of reality in a single wish.”(72) A knight of faith would work his whole life to obtain the forms believing that some day he will achieve this goal.
Conversely, Socrates centers his life around the idea of the forms, placing them at the core of his being but, realizes that he will never actually obtain the forms. Accordingly, Socrates doesn’t fear death because he doesn’t know it, and knows that he never will know it in his current life. Unlike Abraham who was not afraid to sacrifice his son because he was focused on the fact that God would make everything work out in the end, Socrates would not be afraid for other reasons. Socrates would not be hesitant to sacrifice his son because he is aware of the fact that he doesn’t know what will come after death. He proclaims in The Apology by Plato that he isn’t afraid to be put to death because no one has ever proven what comes after life. For this reason Socrates again better exemplifies the ideals of a knight of infinite resignation than those of the knight of
faith. Furthermore, Socrates believes that one way to deal with the constant ignorance that comes from being unable to achieve complete understanding lies in the fact that if you believe you can know everything you are of a lower nature. In correlation with this, one would forget what he knew previously which means, he does not knowing everything. Kierkegaard explains this idea in more simple terms as he talks about the life of a butterfly. He writes, “Only lower natures forget themselves and become something new. Thus the butterfly has altogether forgotten that it was a caterpillar, perhaps it can so completely forget in turn that it was a butterfly that it can become a fish” (72). This idea mirrors that of Socrates allegory of the cave. In his allegory of the cave Socrates states that once a person knows the forms he can’t go back into the cave. Once someone knows full meaning he or she cannot know anything that came before this entirety of knowledge. Throughout Kierkegaard’s descriptions of the knight of faith and the knight of infinite resignation he hits strongly on their contrasting beliefs. Due to Socrates belief that the forms are unachievable he rebuffs the characteristic of a knight of faith that all goals, no matter how absurd are achievable. Socrates receives many pieces of divine inspiration throughout his life and knows that most are impossible to achieve. However, where Socrates strays from the steps to becoming a knight of faith is in his refusal to take the necessary leap of faith in fulfilling these goals.