Kierkegaard's refutation of Hegel in "Either/Or" Analytical Essay by Shaad

This essay analyzes Kierkegaard's novel "Either/Or" in order to judge how successful the author is in his refutation of Hegel's claim that "the inner is the outer and the outer is the inner". It first of all makes the point clear that when Hegel suggests a correspondence between the inner and the outer, it is meant to be a material correspondence. To elaborate on this point, it shows how this correspondence is central to the Western tradition, relating the dualism of Descartes, empirical skepticism, the epistemology of Kant, and finally the historical dialectic of Hegel. This is followed by a critical analysis of the novel. It is shown how the author mimics the Hegelian dialectic by first of presenting a thorough account of an aesthetical point of view, followed by a comprehensive account of the ethical perspective. The essay argues that Kierkegaard is successful in showing that there is no correspondence between these two perspectives on the material plane. It then discusses the final and crucial part of the novel in which the two perspectives are shown to be resolved through a "leap to faith". It is made clear that this resolution is not part of Hegel's claim.