Preview

Kierkegaard's Objective and Subjective Truths

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1417 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Kierkegaard's Objective and Subjective Truths
In this essay, I will discuss the relationship between objective and subjective truth and how if one exists without the other, it results in madness. In Kierkegaard’s piece about the subjectivity of truth, he brings up the point that subjective truth taken to it’s extreme becomes indistinguishable from madness. This is a very unsettling notion, as we often relate madness with an existence that is lacking the presence of truth and reality. If subjective truth is a form of truth, it should have nothing to do with madness. How can madness and said truth be indistinguishable if they suggest different things? Solely because people that are only able to understand one type of truth, do not fit the mold of a person who is completely functional in society and would be noted as mad. Madness does not occur when a person is lacking truth and reality, but when one of those two is missing from a person’s existence. One can be completely filled with truths and have absolutely no sense of reality, making him mad. A person can only have a strong grasp on reality and avoid madness if he has a balance between objective and subjective truth. Kierkegaard goes on to explain this statement about truth being equivalent to madness by providing an example of an inmate of a psychiatric ward who tries to prove his sanity by proclaiming, “Bang, the earth is round!” each time he is cued to do so. In his opinion, stating something that is commonly accepted as true will prove that he is not mad, for only those that are insane do not speak the truth. By doing this, the inmate only makes himself appear even more insane than if he didn’t say anything at all. The irrelevance of his statement is what makes him appear this way. By randomly stating an objective truth, it illustrates that he has absolutely no idea what is going on around him, for it appears as if nothing is keeping him tied down to the appropriate moment. So objective truth without proper subjectivity and madness do become a bit
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Irony in Markus Zusak's the Messenger
    • 15087 Words
    • 61 Pages

    Irony in Markus Zusak's the Messenger

    Frazier, B. (2006). Rorty and Kierkegaard on Irony and Moral Commitment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [Online]. Retrieved at: www.library.nu [July 29th 2011].…

    • 15087 Words
    • 61 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tell Tale Heart Question Sheet 0
    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tell Tale Heart Question Sheet 0

    4. Discuss the concept of “madness” – is the narrator really crazy? Or just a little “misunderstood”.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Equus Peter Shaffer Analysis
    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Equus Peter Shaffer Analysis

    The author of Equus, Peter Shaffer, explores the idea of differing views of Religion by showing contrasting characters and conflicting points of view. Specifically focusing on how showing the contrasting ideas of sanity and insanity in regards to Alan and Dysart. These techniques of contrasting characters and contrasting points of view are used to explore the main idea of what is normal.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Michael Foucault's The History Of Madness
    • 1516 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Michael Foucault's The History Of Madness

    He suggests an explanation of madness and reason and not on the basis of exclusion but purification. Exclusion aims to eliminate by separating whereas purification aims to preserve by separating (Foucault, 1994). Exclusion is for war whereas purification is for modernity which requires modern clinical medicine to separate the healthy from the ill and at the same time preserving the ill as the unusual and using them as a tool that when used in comparison, normal health is…

    • 1516 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cosi
    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cosi

    Nowra proposes the idea that ‘madness’ is not always a simple psychological or psychiatric diagnosis, but is sometimes a matter of perspective and judgement. It embodies a wholistic view of human behaviour rather than an attitude of diagnostics and labelling.…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Comparing Madness In The Great Gatsby, A Rose For Emily, And
    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Comparing Madness In The Great Gatsby, A Rose For Emily, And

    Is someone mad merely because they are different, and do they in return see the same about the world as society do? Madness occurs in the mind of individual that have experienced an event or a series of events that their mind simply cannot handle and to avoid the harsh reality, they fall into the state of madness. In the story The Great Gatsby, “A Rose for Emily” and The Crucible the author portrays through a series of events recognizing the choices that individual has to make to obtain madness.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth Schizophrenia Analysis
    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lady Macbeth Schizophrenia Analysis

    Shakespeare is one such playwright who explored the possibility of some characters being mentally ill. In his play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is depicted as unstable and considerably insane. However, for this paper, I will seek to diagnose Macbeth with schizophrenia, which is a mental disorder characterized by the deterioration in one’s brain and personality as seen in a person feeling, conduct and thoughts. Beside these general character traits of a person suffering from schizophrenia, the diseases specifically results to incoherent conversations and hallucinations. All these elements of a schizophrenic are found in Lady Macbeth; hence, I assert that the Lady Macbeth is schizophrenic.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Protest Against Masculine Discrimination In Faulkner's A Rose
    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Protest Against Masculine Discrimination In Faulkner's A Rose

    Hume (2010) suggested that madness freed the narrator from the imposed self-control towards which her husband insisted. The author thus described the protagonist as “a woman suffering from the final and grotesque delusion that she has gained freedom from her domestic situation by literally ripping the paper off her walls “(Hume 2010, p.6). Therefore, the protagonist’s madness completely freed her from the need to obey her husband, as prescribed by the patriarchal…

    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Shakespeare Major Paper
    • 2842 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Shakespeare Major Paper

    Throughout many of Shakespeare’s plays, one of the central themes with which he provides his readers is the topic of madness and insanity. In Karin S. Coddon’s, “Such Strange Desygns”: Madness, Subjectivity, and Treason in Hamlet and Elizabethan Culture, the author depicts the reasons behind the psychosis of Shakespeare’s characters and what led to their insanity. The author expresses insight for not only the themes of madness in Hamlet but also helps explain the aspect of madness in one Shakespeare’s other plays, Macbeth. Through her analysis, Coddon successfully offers her readers a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s choice to portray his characters in this way and provides the causes and effects of insanity within his plays.…

    • 2842 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Letter To Michael Leunig Analysis
    • 2284 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Letter To Michael Leunig Analysis

    There is a regnant idea that insanity is something belonging to lone individuals, to those odd people who are obviously not like the rest of society. There seems to be little active authority or understanding in the matter of the persistent shared madness in everyday life. The loss of individuals is due to a market-driven fait accompli that redefines the reality of who we are and what we must submit to. This is what causes the soul to suffer. It’s the lunacy of the soul, the cold human hollowness, the emotional flatness and numbness, the moral emptiness because ‘thou shalt be attractive’ is the eleventh commandment of our time. We are brainwashed consumers, forced into narrow views and boring realities. Let us also not forget the contemporary, man-made, verily spreading dependency on technology that has been injected into the minds of the younger generations. Evidently, it now rules the lives of modern humanity by attaching itself to almost every task possible. Slowly, but surely, citizens are becoming the confirmative, occupied, submissive robots that the government blueprinted decades…

    • 2284 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Madness In Hamlet Research Paper
    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Madness In Hamlet Research Paper

    The line “to be, or not to be, that is the question” refers to being alive or dead, but can apply to many different conflicts in life and within ourselves (III.i.62). The tragic play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, brings out many of these inner battles of madness with oneself, which can include choosing life or death for oneself and others. The play Hamlet tells the story of a boy, whose father was murdered by Hamlet’s throne seeking uncle, Claudius. Hamlet portrays many examples of madness, but points out the question of whether Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s madness is real or fake.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    tension in the crucible
    • 328 Words
    • 1 Page

    tension in the crucible

    The play follows how fear of death, the Devil and the unknown causes people to become mad and how the sense of guilt which “generally it was a guilt resulting from their awareness that they were not as Rightist as people were supposed to be” could allow for insanity to overcome a whole community.…

    • 328 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Examples Of Madness In Hamlet
    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Examples Of Madness In Hamlet

    The term “madness” can be known as extreme foolish behavior. It can become a very scary thing if one does not have control over themselves. If someone does not let their anger out during the moment and let it build up inside of them over time, it can make them go insane to the point where they are acting and doing things they don’t want to be doing. Not letting your anger out is what constitutes madness and connects it to truth and reality.…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Theme Of Madness In Hamlet
    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Theme Of Madness In Hamlet

    The first time madness is displayed in Hamlet is when Claudius kills the king of Denmark, Hamlet’s father and Claudius’ brother, and marries the now dead kings wife and takes his place as the king of Denmark. Hamlet finds that his out father’s death wasn’t accidental and who killed him when his father ghost tells him. “But know, that noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown,” (Act 1 scene 5 line 39-40.) What the quote is saying is that…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pet Sematary Essay
    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Pet Sematary Essay

    Thesis: Refusal to accept the truth, whether out of guilt or “blindness,” leads to the same outcome- insanity, a bottomless void emphasized with a deep crimson red.…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics