The Potency of Kierkegaardian Freedom and its historical Impact

Abstract

Background/Aim: Kierkegaard introduces in the history of philosophy a new concept of freedom characterised as an infinite creative power of personal existence. The impact of this new conceptualisation has been enormous, both in later existentialism and in postmodernism and contemporary neo-existentialism. This article aims at revisiting the concept of freedom as determined by Søren Kierkegaard. Methods: We will follow an expository and hermeneutical methodology based on Kierkegaardian texts and some of his readers. The article will articulate the concept of freedom with some key categories such as infinite potency, paradox and the instant.Results: In our view, freedom is the ontological and psychological key to Kierkegaard’s thinking, the potency that allows the subject to unfold his own existence from the pure possibility to the absolute actuality of the divine. Through freedom, Kierkegaard builds the singular individual.Conclusion: At the end, we will review the reception of this concept in some currents of contemporary thought. Freedom is today, as always, a field of exploration open to future creations that itself makes possible and actual. Because freedom exists, reality becomes a contemporary philosophical project.