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Knight of Faith and Murder

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By aarmiak
Words 1538
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A45366190
Topic #3
10/7/12
Word count: 1,600

The Knight of Faith and a Murderer

Upon reading “Fear and Trembling” by Kierkegaard I came across many new phrases and words I had never heard of before. A few stuck out to me that I focused on and interested me the most. They were types of people called the Aesthete, Knight of resignation, and the knight of faith. The knight of faith is someone I was interested in most. I didn’t quite understand the knight of faith’s thought process. The knight of faith would recognize the impossibility of his wish but also truly believes that it will be arranged. They believe that for God, all things are possible. When reading Abraham’s story it is hard to distinguish him from a Knight of faith and a murderer. Abraham puts all of his faith in God believing that things will be okay if he listens to God and kills his son. This makes him a Knight of faith but also a murderer if he were to actually kill his son. Kierkegaard describes in his book the differences between the two but still remarks on how they can overlap. I argue that Kierkegaard did not give sufficient criteria for distinguishing the knight of faith from a murder because he is in violation of the ethical, which is the universal. As mentioned above, Kierkegaard portrayed the knight of faith as someone who recognizes the impossibility of his wish but believes that it will be granted. A great example of the knight of faith that Kierkegaard brought up was a story about a beautiful princess. A man is in love with this princess but unfortunately it is impossible for them to be together. Kierkegaard said that the knight of faith would infinitely surrender his love, settling himself to the pain. However, he also, goes one step further and says, "Nevertheless I have faith that I will get her--that is, by virtue of the absurd, by virtue of the fact that for God all things are possible (pg.67)." Agreeing to the understanding, this is impossible, and the knight of faith is submissive to that fact. With that said, for the knight of faith, faith is much past the understanding, and the knight continues to have faith. When I say that faith for the knight of faith is much past understanding I mean, they believe they are being called to something much higher than the ethical. Therefor the knight of faith will do anything when God is telling him to do so, even if it is past the ethical. The knight of faith is a spiritual person believing that for God, all things are conceivable. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham was willing to do so assuming all would be well for him because God asked him to do this. Abraham was silent about this which also gives him a quality of the knight of faith. As Kierkegaard told us the knight of faith cannot communicate or explain his commitment to others. The choice of a knight of faith must be made alone which makes them appear lonely and distant (pg. 80). They do not communicate well because no human being would understand them, almost forcing them to work alone for God. With all of this knowledge about the knight of faith and him acting out of belief in God, how does this distinguish him from the murderer? A murder is a thought-out killing of one human being by another. A murderer can be anyone with the will to commit such an act. They can be a murderer because someone told them to do it or had their own idea to perform it. With already knowing the definition of a murderer, Kierkegaard failed to show me and his fellow readers the difference between a knight of faith and a murderer. Abraham was willing to kill his own son, and therefore if he would have done it, it would have made him a murderer. In Kierkegaard’s book, “The Fear and Trembling,” he describes Abraham as a knight of faith because he puts the strength of his whole life, his son Isaac, into one single wish. This wish just so happened to be to murder his son. Abraham loved his son but was willing to do this because God had asked him too. However by definition of a murderer, if the person thinks about the murder and then does it, he is considered a murderer, no matter how much faith a person has. Abraham thought about killing Isaac, had a plan to take him away up to a mountain to do it, and was about to perform the act of killing his son. Hence explaining how the knight of faith and a murderer are not properly distinguished in Kierkegaard’s book. Although I believe a murderer and knight of faith were not distinguished appropriately, others readers could have different views. For instance some could say if you know and fully understand the story of Abraham is would be wrong to think Abraham wanted to murder him willingly, like a murderer would want too. They bring up the point that Abraham never wanted to kill his son but only was willing to do so because God wanted him to. People may argue that a murderer wants to kill their victim and has the intention of doing so before he/she actually does it. I also believe this is true because Abraham had always loved his son so much and would never wish for him to be hurt, especially by himself. However with that point it still does not distinguish Abraham from a murderer. Abraham had a plan to kill Isaac and would have done it, making him a murderer. A murderer doesn’t always have to have the desire to kill their victim. Another example of this could be contract killing. Contract killing is when a person pays someone else to kill someone. The person being paid doesn’t always necessarily want to kill the person but most of the time still ends up doing it and they are still considered a murderer. With that point they have doubts too, just like Abraham, and his faith in God does not draw the line and say a person who killed someone for God is not a murderer. It doesn’t matter if the knight of faith only commits the crime of murder because God told him too. That is finagling! One simply cannot say they are acting for God and are above the ethical so therefore that allows them to commit crimes such as murder. If one takes away another’s life expressively, its murder. This brings us to another objection that people may believe, that is the knight of faith feels called to something higher than the ethical. They could say that a knight of faith is being “called” by God to perform tasks which is different from a murderer. An example of this objective would be if you had two people, a knight of faith and a murderer. The knight of faith was told by God to bomb a library. The knight of faith would not look at it as ethically wrong because they have full faith in God that it must be the right thing to do. It is almost as if they are brain washed to believe so much in God that even the most extremes are correct. A murderer, on the other hand, would know that bombing the library is a wrong thing to do, debates about it, yet still proceeds to bomb the library knowing it will kill hundreds of innocent citizens. This doesn’t make any sense and is not a very knowledgeable thing to say. How do we know that it is God who is calling these knights of faiths and telling them to commit acts such as murder? It could be just in their imagination or an excuse to go against the ethics of our universe. It doesn’t make much sense that God would be asking people, such as Abraham to kill people. Also, as I continuously repeat, in our world today, if you purposefully kill another human being you have committed a murder, making you a murderer. It is true that I argue that Kierkegaard does not give sufficient criteria for distinguishing the knight of faith from a murderer because he is in violation of the ethical, which is the universal. This was proved by looking into the definitions of both types of people and comparing and contrasting how Kierkegaard has described them. He proclaimed a knight of faith is someone who recognizes impossibility but through God believes anything is possible. The knight of faith keeps to themselves and is willing to sacrifice a life for spiritual reasons. Kierkegaard fails to make the distinction from a murderer because there is no true evidence that God has told the knights of faith to commit unethical acts. Also, when the day is done Abraham would have killed his son, making him a murderer. Therefor as much as Kierkegaard wants to see Abraham as a knight of faith, if Abraham would have killed his son, he would also be a murderer.

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