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Merold Westphal Quotes

To assume that one's existential task is completed when the individual is brought into right relation with society, that is, when the individual has been socialized, is to absolutize society and confuse society with God.

To assume that one's existential task is completed when the individual is brought into right relation with society, that is, when the individual has been socialized, is to absolutize society and confuse society with God.

Merold Westphal
Tasks, Existentialism, Assuming
Merold Westphal (2010). “Kierkegaard's Critique of Reason and Society”, p.35, Penn State Press

To a society that inarticulately and thoughtlessly takes itself to be divine, Hegel says, Yes, we are indeed divine, and philosophy can show how this is both possible and necessary.

Merold Westphal
Philosophy, Hegel, Divine
Merold Westphal (2010). “Kierkegaard's Critique of Reason and Society”, p.38, Penn State Press

In a revolutionary age talk of equality may well have represented a passion to provide full human dignity to those who had previously been denied it by systems of political and economic domination; but in the present age it softens the spiritual requirements that are an essential ingredient in human dignity. Thus the slogans of equality serve not so much to elevate individuals to the dignity of being human as to free them from the responsibility of rising to this vocation.

Merold Westphal
Spiritual, Responsibility, Passion
Merold Westphal (2010). “Kierkegaard's Critique of Reason and Society”, p.49, Penn State Press

It is the shared bad faith by which individuals help each other sustain the illusion that they can shirk their spiritual destiny by joining the public.

Merold Westphal
Spiritual, Destiny, Joining
Merold Westphal (2010). “Kierkegaard's Critique of Reason and Society”, p.49, Penn State Press

For the amoral herd that fears boredom above all else, everything becomes entertainment. Sex and sport, politics and the arts are transformed into entertainment. ... Nothing is immune from the demand that boredom be relieved (but without personal involvement, for mass society is a spectator society).

Merold Westphal
Sports, Art, Sex
"Kierkegaard's Critique of Reason and Society". Book by Merold Westphal, 1987.

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