Kierkegaard’s early philosophy of history: A view for contemporary times

This study seeks to show that the ethical considerations put forward by Søren Kierkegaard’s pseudonym, judge William, in Either/Or Part 2, stem from a novel and so far, completely ignored, philosophy of history. We start with a close contextualization of William’s immediate motivation, namely, to help a friend overcome the existential despair which is typical of any aesthetic outlook on life. In so doing, we show how William implicitly advances a distinct representation of history, which is both tragic and spiritually meaningful. Next, we address very briefly the originality of William’s meditations by contrasting them with Hegel’s idealist theory of history. We conclude with the enumeration of several distinguishing characteristics of William’s argument, which render it, not just philosophically and morally noteworthy, but also very relevant today.