Write a 5-6 page essay (with double line spacing, and a 12pt. font) on one of the following topics.

Whichever topic you choose, you should divide your paper into two parts, and label them “Part A” and “Part B.” Part A is the expository part of your paper. To do well on this part, you must ground your interpretation in the text, but you must also take us beyond the text, explaining its main idea, pointing out possible issues and ambiguities, etc. Each topic includes a question that asks you to critically evaluate some claim or view. Part B should include your response to this question. A critical evaluation can take many forms. It might present an objection, respond to an objection, do some mixture of the two, it might raise a pressing question, show an interesting implication, etc. Regardless of the format, a good critical evaluation will directly respond to the question in the prompt, it will show an understanding of that question, and it will provide warrant for the evaluative line it advances.

Topics

– In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard says:

Faith is precisely the paradox that the single individual as the single individual is higher than the universal, is justified before it, not as inferior to it but as superior—yet in such a way, please note, that it is the single individual who, after being subordinate as the single individual to the universal, now by means of the universal becomes the single individual who as the single individual is superior, that the single individual as the single individual stands in an absolute relation to the absolute. This position cannot be mediated, for all mediation takes place only by virtue of the universal; it is and remains for all eternity a paradox, impervious to thought. And yet faith is this paradox… (p.55-6; see, also p. 55, top of page)

How does the single individual become “superior” to the universal? Explain what Kierkegaard means when he says, “This position cannot be mediated, for all mediation takes place only by virtue of the universal.” Lastly, evaluate whether faith, as described in the above passage, expresses a kind of individual meaning (i.e., non-universal/non-mediated meaning).

– In The Sickness Unto Death, Kierkegaard claims individuals are unable to overcome despair through their own power. Why does he claim this? Focus especially on the form of despair Kierkegaard calls “despair to will to be oneself” (pp. 67-74). Lastly, evaluate Kierkegaard’s claim that we cannot overcome despair on our own.

– In §270 of The Gay Science, Nietzsche says, “ ‘You shall become who you are’.” Nietzsche denies that we have some inborn essence that we need to realize, and in §354 he even suggest that the conscious self is merely the product of what seems to be base social interactions (see, e.g., §354); so, what could he mean in §270? In coming up with your answer, you will find it helpful to focus on §290 and §341. Once you arrive at an interpretation of §270, evaluate the view you think it advances.

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