SOURCE: "The Problems of Reason," in A Re-Appraisal of Kierkegaard, University Press of America, 1995, pp. 27-38.

In the following essay, Slaatté argues that contrary to what some rationalists have charged, Kierkegaard did not "scorn" reason. Rather, Slaatté maintains, Kierkegaard's writings suggest that reason does make up one part of human existence, but it does not reflect the entirety of one's selfhood.

1: Reason and the Reasoner

Existentialist thinkers have been influenced by Kierkegaard, directly or indirectly, upon recognizing that "existence precedes essence." This implies that it is erroneous to speak of man as a rationally objectified concept or an abstraction called human nature or mankind. We begin and end our theorizing with the self, who can say "me."

In Western philosophy it was Parmenides and Plato who reversed this perspective placing essence before existence. The rational conceptualization of man was an objectification of a subjective existence. Aristotle accepted this...