Irony as the Birth of Kierkegaard's “Single Individual” and the Beginning of Politics

• Published in: Toronto journal of theology 2012-09, Vol.28 (2), p.309-318
• Main Author: Williams, George Willis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biblical studies; Ethics; Politics; Religion; Social justice
• ISSN: 0826-9831; 1918-6371
• DOI: 10.3138/tjt.28.2.309

This paper examines the idea presented in Søren Kierkegaard's The Concept of Irony (1841) and Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846) that irony, far more than a rhetorical device, is an existential category that gives birth to the subjectively existing single individual. As such, irony is no diversion from or necessary undercutting of one's ethical growth but is a required step in fostering it. Although Kierkegaard preferred to focus on the individual, irony nevertheless plays an essential role in issues of social justice and politics, since the self must be distinguished from its social environment if there is to be any hope for one's being useful in changing it for the better, and irony is the means by which the distinguishing of the self occurs. For example, since Kierkegaard believes that politics is at best only provisional and approximate, irony has an important role in chastening overweening political forces, which are often accompanied by human rights abuses. Irony secures room for individuals who have an inner infinity that can never be utterly conformed to the strictures of finite politics. Thus, as Kierkegaard presents it, irony's birth of the single individual is shown to be politically significant.