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The question concerns the texture of daily life. Does the individual live with the assurance, conscious or unconscious, that We are absolute—or with the challenge of being, both as I and as We, finite and human?

— Merold Westphal Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992)

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More quotes by Merold Westphal

Knowledge conceived as an instrument is a means to the end of power. The goal of philosophy, however, is not to gain power over the Absolute but to know it as it truly is.

History and Truth in Hegel’s Phenomenology (1979)

Kierkegaard seeks to un-socialize the individual in order to un-deify society.

Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992)

It is precisely the acceptance of political, ethical, and religious heteronomy which leads Hegel to label Judeo-Christian culture a slave culture.

History and Truth in Hegel’s Phenomenology (1979)

To assume that one’s existential task is completed when the individual is brought into right relation with society, that is, when the individual has been socialized, is to absolutize society and confuse society with God.

Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992)

The story of German idealism is the story of Kant and the aftermath.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Merold Westphal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.