Subjective truth-- reflection on Kierkegaard

Subjectivity is directly related to human existence in the world. It can neither be abstracted nor mediated. It is something personal and originating from heart-feelings rather than logic or observations through perceptions, which Kierkegaard named as the inwardness. Kierkegaard emphasized more than once that there does exist objective truth nice and all, it’s just that they’re not of great significance since they are merely cold, detached facts and cannot be life-transforming as can subjective truth. To Kierkegaard, “the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die,” that is, too seek for one’s own subjective truth.

“No theory can adequately embrace the concrete.” is probably the harshest note to all sciences. Kierkegaard pointed out the richness of reality which the theories can never attain. Through perceptions and logic, we establish objective truth. The fascinating scientific discovery of the ‘Uncertainty Principle’ is really an impact on both science and philosophy. It is very similar to the ‘approximation-process’ idea proposed by Kierkegaard in the text— but a substantial difference is that it is a support from the science. Another is the theory of statistics of possibilities about “even the proposition with the highest probability may happen to represent no actual event.” These collectively suggest similar ideas that 1) in some cases, we may infinitely approximate something but never get it, and 2) no matter how we presume a certain thing in totality, by chance it may not appear. These facts point out the uncertainty of objective truths.

Then, what about subjective truths? Is there more certainty in it? Does it provide a definitely correct association? Kierkegaard’s answer is simple and short—negative. But even if in those cases, as he indicated, “the individual is in the truth even if he should happen to be thus related to what is not true.” Why? Because the criteria are different. For objectivity, its criteria of value are correspondence and coherence; in subjectivity, they’re authenticity and sincerity. The infinite ‘approximate process’ defeats science but not the subjectivity.

Similar to the Christian example Kierkegaard provided, there is a fable in Buddhism as followed: a man who sincerely wants to become a monk tried to find a mentor. On his journey, he met a devil-figure and falsely followed him in his moral practice. At last, he still became a Buddha because though he was receiving all the inspirations from a wrong model, his subjective apprehension is still on the right path. And thus Kierkegaard defined ‘the highest truth attainable for an existing individual’ as “an objective uncertainty held fast in an appropriation-process of the most passionate inwardness...”

Other than questions on religion, subjective truth also applies to almost all except the construction of science. For example, love is a typical subjectivity as truth. As long as you love someone, it is definite already. You can neither observe through perceptions nor deduce through logic—you simply keep the faith and that’s all. Devotion is prior to any other judgment in such cases.