Johannes Climacus, Socratic Philosopher

Abstract

The relationship between philosophy and religious faith is the central theme of two of Kierkegaard's pseudonymous volumes. Philosophical Fragments, or A Fragment of Philosophy , by Johannes Climacus, edited by S. Kierkegaard, was published in 1844. Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments : A Mimical-Pathetical-Dialectical Compilation, An Existential Contribution , also by Johannes Climacus, edited by S. Kierkegaard, appeared two years later, in 1846. These are the only works by Climacus in the Kierkegaardean corpus. Kierkegaard first mentions the name of Climacus in connection with the speculative philosophy of G W F. Hegel (1770–1831), whose followers, including theologians as well as philosophers, played a leading role in the Danish intellectual scene of the day. In a journal entry dated January 20, 1839, he writes: “Hegel is a Johannes Climacus who does not storm the heavens as do the giants – by setting mountain upon mountain – but climbs up to them by means of his syllogisms.” Hegel ascends to the “heaven” of absolute knowledge stepwise, on the basis of a series of philosophical arguments. This occurs in his Phenomenology of Spirit , which he envisions as furnishing the natural or prephilosophic consciousness with a “ladder” to the “absolute” beginning of his philosophical system – the standpoint of absolute spirit and absolute knowing. Kierkegaard's allusion to the rebellious giants of Greek myth who made war on Zeus after the defeat of the Titans hints that, in his view, Hegel's philosophical ascent is both hybristic and illegitimate – a point to which we shall return in due course.