Crisis, Identity and the End of Modernity: When Critical Theory Met Existentialism

Bojan Blagojević

doi:10.25038/am.v0i16.250

Abstract

The topic of this essay will be the political reception of the existential thought of Kierkegaard, provided by Habermas and Matuštik. While Habermas attempts to use Kierkegaard’s concepts of honesty and ethical choice in order to resolve the problems in constructing rational and democratic collective identities, Matuštik is concerned with the mode of existence that individuals within those collective identities must assume in order to safeguard them from totalitarianism.Kierkegaard’s work responds to a crisis at the end of Modernity, his conception of the authentic individual compelled to make leaps of faith represents an attempt to diagnose and remedy the situation of axiological vacuum and disillusion with the traditional forms of justification. We will proceed to show how this crisis reflects on both the individual and the collective identities, the breaks and continuations of Kierkegaard’s work with both pre-Modern traditions and Modernity, and finally, point out the implications of Kierkegaard’s position as well as that of Habermas and Matuštik. Article received: March 12, 2018; Article accepted: April 10, 2018; Published online: September 15, 2018; Original scholarly paperHow to cite this article: Blagojević, Bojan. "Crisis, Identity and the End of Modernity: When Critical Theory Met Existentialism." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 16 (2018): 11−18. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i16.250

Highlights

Kierkegaard’s work responds to a crisis at the end of Modernity, his conception of the authentic individual compelled to make leaps of faith represents an attempt to diagnose and remedy the situation of axiological vacuum and disillusion with the traditional forms of justification
On the one hand, a person who knows exactly what his starting point is and what is to be his life’s agenda, and on the other hand a “careless wanderer” with no discernible purpose to his life, no way to establish if her life is being lived properly or not, Kierkegaard provides an account of the void that the European individual faces at the end of Modernity
The ready-made solutions for this state provided by society and the Church can be comforting and may serve as a temporary consolation, but Kierkegaard maintains that the inauthentic existence that they encourage only lead the individual to a state of despair, a depression-like experience that can only be overcome by an authentic dealing with the void that the individual is plunged into

Summary

Introduction

Kierkegaard’s work responds to a crisis at the end of Modernity, his conception of the authentic individual compelled to make leaps of faith represents an attempt to diagnose and remedy the situation of axiological vacuum and disillusion with the traditional forms of justification. On the one hand, a person who knows exactly what his starting point is and what is to be his life’s agenda, and on the other hand a “careless wanderer” with no discernible purpose to his life, no way to establish if her life is being lived properly or not, Kierkegaard provides an account of the void that the European individual faces at the end of Modernity. Habermas’s political appropriation of Kierkegaard’s concept of honest radical choice

Results

Conclusion