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The Kantian Ethical Perspective Seen from the Existential Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard’S Victor Eremita José García Martín,1 Arturo Morales Rojas2 & Roman Králik3

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The Kantian Ethical Perspective Seen from the Existential Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard’S Victor Eremita José García Martín,1 Arturo Morales Rojas2 & Roman Králik3 Ethics & Bioethics (in Central Europe), 2021, 11 (1–2), 48–57 DOI:10.2478/ebce-2021-0003 The Kantian ethical perspective seen from the existential philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard’s Victor Eremita José García Martín,1 Arturo Morales Rojas2 & Roman Králik3 Abstract This article compares two groundings of ethics: the ethical postulates of Immanuel Kant with the existential thinking of S. Kierkegaard. To achieve this goal, first, it proposes highlighting the fundamental ideas of Kantian ethics; then, secondly, highlighting Kierkegaard’s ethical stance; and finally, contrasting both approaches to identify differences and similarities. Conclusively, we can say that the pure Kantian ethical formality of duty for duty’s sake necessarily dispenses with existential and concrete content; it is an ethics that is grounded in itself, that refers to itself, to the rational nature of the human being and its universality. In contrast, Kierkegaardian ethics is a Christian ethics, it is the ethics of love for one’s neighbour and, above all, for God; it is a relational and existential ethics of the single individual. Keywords: Kant, duty, categorical imperative, Kierkegaard, individual, love Introduction During the 18th and 19th centuries there emerged, without any doubt, brilliant thinkers who embellished and consolidated philosophical activity between modernity and the contemporary period. The appearance of diverse and particular artistic, scientific, cultural and, naturally, philosophical trends, as well as major historical events, such as the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution, were outstanding facts in the development of humanity during those centuries. Philosophical reflection was revitalised and adorned with the investigations, rigorous and always relevant, of great thinkers like Immanuel Kant and Søren Kierkegaard, who, with their contributions and profound approaches, stirred up and stimulated new questions, achieved answers and, above all, promoted an analytical view of the existence and acts of the human being in the current society (Králik, Valco & García Martín, 2014, pp. 47–48). In this regard, this study sets out to pin down the core notions of Kantian ethics and contrast them with the thinking, principally, of Kierkegaard who wrote under the pseudonym of Victor Eremita. In short, the aim is to reflect on the Kantian categorical imperative, formulated two-fold in Groundwork of the metaphysic of morals (Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten [GMS], 1785), and in Critique of practical reason (Kritik der reinen Vernunft [KrV], 1788),4 seeking to identify the convergent aspects with Kierkegaardian pseudonymous thought. To do so, the approaches of Kierkegaard’s Either-Other (Enten-Eller [E-E], 1843) will be crucial when considering the two thinkers’ points of view, since this work paradigmatically represents Kierkegaard’s ethical point of view, in addition to the aesthetic one. 1 University of Granada (Spain); ORCID: 0000-0001-7401-0613; Scopus ID: 57194060352 2 Complutense University of Madrid (Spain); Scopus ID: 57215575888; ORCID: 0000-0002-6963-4680 3 Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, RUDN University (Russia); [email protected]; ORCID: 0000-0002-1929-1894; Scopus ID: 46861468800 4 Used Kant’s works in the article and their abbreviations: An answer to the question: What is enlightment? / Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung? (1784) [BFA]; Groundwork of the metaphysic of morals / Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (1785) [GMS]; Critique of practical reason / Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1788) [KrV]; Religion within the bounds of bare reason / Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft (1793) [RGV]. 48 The breadth and coverage of Kant’s work allow one to tackle many issues. As a result, Kant’s thinking, arguably the summit of modern philosophy, represents “an everlasting treasure”5 for current times. Moreover, throughout this article Kant´s contribution will serve as a benchmark in evaluating the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, the many-faceted writer from Copenhagen, whose philosophy is rightly considered the main cornerstone of existentialism. That said, we will compare and contrast their thought from a strictly ethical perspective, more exactly, by moving back and forth between the following fields: meta-ethics, normative ethics, and existential ethics. Together with physics and logic, ethical thinking represented the three main divisions of ancient Greek thought (Kant, 2016, p. 558 [GMS]). This means that hence from its very beginning, Western philosophy has concerned itself with issues related to human conduct, and especially, the principles or criteria used in defining good and evil (Guerrero, 2008, pp. 137–147, 189–200).6 Thus, the Greek term “ethos”, for instance, referred to reflections on human conduct or character formation which have become constitutive to the way in which we define the notions of good and evil. Kant and his ethical system Kantian ethical thought constitutes one of the great systems of current normative ethics; its vision and position against the criteria that help us to identify when an action is good or bad are commendable. The attempt to identify, through the categories of his philosophy, what the origin of good and evil as a metaphysical foundation is, and to point out, at the same time, who should define the reasons whereby we can justify said determinations, make Kant an inescapable reference point for today’s society. To pin down the beginning of an analysis of his notions, it is worth reassessing the issue Kant develops in the short treatise on the Enlightenment: “Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man’s inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! “Have courage to use your own reason!” – that is the motto of enlightenment.” (An answer to the question: What is enlightment?) (Kant, 2016, p. 535 [BFA]). In this way, Kant takes as his starting point the claim that becoming an adult consists in using one’s own understanding. This singular capacity of human nature not only points to the ability to think and acquire theoretical knowledge, but also connects it with the practical. This aspect allows us to reveal that the Sapere Aude is aimed at promoting an action preceded by a rational act, by practical reason. Having said that, as for practical reason and Kantian ethics, these progressively take on a distinctive character in comparison with Greek and medieval ethical postulates. Schopenhauer states: Kant has the great merit in ethics of having purified it of all eudaemonism. The ethics of the ancients was eudaemonics; a) that of the moderns, mostly the doctrine of salvation; b) the ancients wanted to show virtue and happiness as identical; but these were like two shapes that never superimpose however one may arrange them; c, the moderns wanted to connect the two not according to the principle of identity, but according to that of ground, and so make happiness the consequence of virtue (Schopenhauer, 2009, p. 123). 5 Expression taken from Thucydides, the Athenian historian, from the 5th century BCE, when in his work: The Peloponnesian War, in Thc. 1.22 he affirms the validity, grandeur, and utility of his work. 6 In the cited work (2008), we can find two chapters, each of which is devoted to one of the great philosophical figures we are comparing in terms of ethics in this paper. 49 Consequently, ethics in Kant undergoes a process of purification; that is, it dispenses with interest, whether it be that of virtue (Aristotelian ethics), that of happiness, (the Stoics and the Epicureans) or that of eternal life (Platonism). Kant, however, proposes an ethics that is not instrumentalised, without proposing ways to achieve ends, but rather considering solely the end in itself. In general, according to Kierkegaard, Kant was inclined to find another starting point in modern philosophy to clarify knowing the world (Kierkegaard [SKP], 1968–1978, I A 192 / [SKS], 1997–2012, Papir 258:10 / [JP], 1967–1978, 3: 2515). This also entails looking for it clearly in the field of ethics. The novelty of its ethical position is the issue of duty for duty’s sake, its approach being deontological par excellence; that is, subject A when he does action X, said action only has moral value when the reason for acting is duty. Kant says in this respect: On the other hand, if adversity and hopeless sorrow have completely taken away the relish for life; if the unfortunate one, strong in mind, indignant at his fate rather than desponding or dejected, wishes for death, and yet preserves his life without loving it – not from inclination or fear, but from duty – then his maxim has a moral worth (Kant, 2016, p. 563 [GMS]). From this, it is inferred that an action contains moral value insofar as the reason for materialising it is solely and exclusively for duty. Faced with the matter of the moral law, Kant establishes the universal legality of human actions. In this way, what is known as the Kantian categorical imperative is shaped: But what sort of law can that be, the conception of which must determine the will, even without paying any regard to the effect expected from it, in order that this will may be called good absolutely and without qualification? As I have deprived the will of every impulse which could arise to it from obedience to any law, there remains nothing but the universal conformity of its actions to law in general, which alone is to serve the will as a principle, i.e., I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maximum should become a universal law (Kant, 2016, p. 565 [GMS]). Acting, the will and all inclinations, therefore, seek to be a model for all; it is the enthronement of duty.
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