Moral Compass Project

Subproject: Kierkegaard and transparency thinking

Permanent visibility?

This sub-project connects the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) with current social phenomena. The study begins with a general critical analysis of contemporary 'transparency thinking' that strives for the totalization of information and data control through science and technology. Permanent visibility is central to this view. Its underlying proposition (I) is that all aspects of being human are ultimately measurable. In contrast, this research places 'existential transparency' as an ideal that is precisely aimed at self-examination and authenticity. Secrecy and intimacy are central here, with the underlying proposition (II) that human individuality is ultimately indeterminable, that is to say, in principle it can never be foreseen, predicted or understood. Precisely in that indeterminacy lies the openness to a 'divine appeal’.

Kierkegaard's criticism

This project shows how Kierkegaard's criticism of modern culture and his analysis of 'the public' form a relevant criticism of proposition I, with attention to processes such as objectification and hyper-reflection that undermine individuality and freedom of choice. It then elaborates on how Kierkegaard, via the pseudonym Anti-Climacus, substantiates proposition II and identifies existential transparency as an anthropological process to overcome despair. This contrasts with transparency thinking that reduces people to objects and creates despair. Kierkegaard's thinking also helps to analyze the meaning of the secret and intimacy and how this can be preserved in the practice of writing a diary, as Kierkegaard himself practiced this.

Dataism and the transcendent

This study provides a critical analysis of the view that human actions would benefit from permanent visibility and analyzes the consequences of dataism. It is made plausible that a human reality that consists of ethical existence benefits from cherishing the intimate space of the inner self. At the same time, Kierkegaard defends how accepting a transcendent criterion or point of reference (God) is necessary to exist as a self and how accepting an immanent criterion (data) undermines the self. In this way, the moment of 'divine appeal' is explored as defining the self.

Researchers

Key publications

• Rob Compaijen, Valuable vice: Kierkegaard on collective envy in a literary review. Religions 14:11 (2023), Article 1397. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111397
• Pieter Vos, The grammar and socio-political implications of Kierkegaard’s Christian virtue of meekness. Religions 14:11 (2023), Article 1431. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111431 
• Rob Compaijen & Pieter Vos, Ethical Reflection as Evasion, in: Adam Buben, Eleanor Helms, and Patrick Stokes (Eds), The Kierkegaardian Mind (Routledge Philosophical Minds), London: Routledge 2019, 67-77.