Concluding Unscientific Postscript

In the section on “The Subjective Thinker,” Kierkegaard states that “[e]ach age has its own characteristic depravity. Ours is perhaps not pleasure or indulgence or sensuality, but rather a dissolute pantheistic contempt for the individual man” (317). In the same section he asks: “[W]hat does a mere individual count for? Our age knows only too well how little it is” (317).

Throughout the Postscript, Kierkegaard positions himself as a spokesman for the individual against the “crowd”—the “crowd” often referencing the academically fashionable philosophy of Hegelianism. Instead of accepting such a system unquestioningly, Kierkegaard insists on developing an awareness of being an existing individual and, from that awareness, forming one’s own thoughts and opinions. His use of an assumed persona in the Postscript illustrates his desire to eschew direct, dogmatic philosophical discourse in favor of opening a dialogue with the reader—one that will cultivate the kind of subjectivity he espouses.

Kierkegaard believes that the “collective idea” increasingly dominates modern thought and society. People, particularly intellectuals, think of themselves collectively (e.g., as members of a race or of their historical era). People want to lose themselves in a social or intellectual movement—i.