Kierkegard

Kierkegaard felt that subjective reflection was more crucial to the individual life than objective reflection, because subjective reflection focuses on passion and human existence rather than logic and impersonal truth. The objective world is the world of facts and truth, independent of the perceptions of humans.  Objective reflection focuses on what actually is, in the real world. Objective reflection centers on the things and ideas in the world that give meaning to life. The subjective world is the world of human thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.  It focuses on the relationship between people and their thoughts, feelings and perceptions, in respect to their lives. It centers on how meaning in life is viewed subjectively, or how humans find meaning in their lives.  To Kierkegaard, subjective reflection is the relationship to what a person values in life.

        One major difference I noticed in the reading, between the objective and subjective realms, is in regards to 'being' versus 'becoming'.  Kierkegaard stated, “the objective world is as it is: being”. The subjective world is always 'becoming' something else through internal conflicts and struggle. However, the latter difference then creates a chain, as another difference arises between the two realms. The objective world is based in reason, while the subjective world is based in passion.

       Kierkegaard believed that subjective reflection is the key understanding meaning in life. In a sense, he complains about the objective reflection, stating that “it is impersonal and an indifferent relation to existence”.  As a matter of fact, this terminology, as I shall call it, defines just what the objective world and objective reflection is:  being independent of any human subjectivity. Subjective reflection naturally focuses on human existence in a personal and inward way, without 'detachment' as Kierkegaard refers to it.

       Kierkegaard goes on to use the knowledge of God as an example to show why...