An idea · Nineteenth Century · first attested 1843
The Leap of Faith
Some commitments cannot be made on the basis of reasons.
Kierkegaard, against Hegel's logical confidence, insists that the deepest choices – whom to love, what to believe, what to give one's life to, who to become – outrun what reason can certify. To make them, one must leap. Faith for Kierkegaard is not the conclusion of an argument; it is a movement of the whole self into uncertainty. The phrase has been generalized; the deep version is harder than it sounds.