Tro og beslutsomhed

Abstract

Kierkegaard and Heidegger agree in seeing the prominenceof human existence in the reflexive concern for itself and the anxietywhich follows from recognizing the abyss of possibility and nothingness.However, Heidegger misses a notion of the formal structure of beingin Kierkegaard’s work, which he conceives to merely offer a theologicalsolution to questions that only a phenomenological outlook mightprovide on neutral grounds. Kierkegaard, on the other hand, lends hisvoice to forms of existence by which the “existentiell” dimension restson the awakening of the Spirit as the condition of possibility. Contraryto Heidegger, Kierkegaard does not regard the fulfi llment of existenceas something the subject can decide for itself without falling into despair.Using the literary figure of Hans Castorp from the novel Zauberbergby Thomas Mann, the article aims to show how easily the decisionto confront life with love falls back into a spell of escapism, leavingKierkegaard with the upper hand in pointing out the inadequacy of thehuman spirit, including philosophical endeavors, to ground itself.