Open    Access



Kierkegaard’s Influence on the Lives of Jan Patocka and Viktor Frankl



Author(s)

Jerry L. Terrill

Full-Text PDF XML     3991 Views

DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2014.08.003

The writings of Soren Kierkegaard provide a theological and philosophical foundation as experienced in the life of a tragic hero and a knight of faith. It will be shown that the ethical dimensions as experienced by Abraham in “Fear and Trembling” provide a core ontology in the lives of Jan Patocka and Viktor Frankl. Jan Parocka developed a phenomenological, Kierkegaardian, existential approach in his writings and lectures that enabled him to undergo his interrogations by the Czech communist secret police. The World War II concentration camp experiences of Viktor Frankl led him to develop a Kierkegaardian, existential, noetic approach to discover meaning under inhuman living conditions. We, as humans, are searching for a spiritual core to transcendence, as seen in the writings of Kierkeggard to reach beyond ourselves in the fully human dimension of the good, the true, and the beautiful in faith and in love. Special attention will be given to the lives of Patocka, Frankl, and how Kierkegaard’s theology and philosophy contribute a transhistorical, phenomenological, existential, meaning-centered approach to understanding trauma, especially in the lives of returning veterans and their families.

Kierkegaard, Frankl, Patocka, ethics, existentialism, phenomenology, noetics, trauma, veteran