SKC Project Seminar

Barbara Tautz: Humility and Courage in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling

My Phd-thesis was inspired by Richard Rorty’s idea of the “liberal ironist” (in Contingency, Irony and Solidarity). With his concept of irony Rorty tries to describe a way of life in postmodern society. For him this means a society in which the individual is constantly aware of the contingency of his or her own values, views and even vocabulary. In my thesis I take up Rorty’s analysis of contingency but I would like to suggest humility and courage as an alternative to irony. More specifically I want to show how humility can lead to courage. For this I draw on the relation of humility and courage in Hadewijch, Meister Eckhart and Kierkegaard’s writings.