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the central focus of attention in most of the concept of Kierkegaard's irony is Socrates

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Kierkegaard was not only interested in the concept of irony, but in the figure of Socrates

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Socrates (469-399 BC)

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the dialogue The Apology is an account of his trial

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the dialogue The Phaedo is an account of his final hours and his execution by drinking hemlock

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spent much of his time walking around the city talking with people

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found people who claimed to know something about some specific area of knowledge and asked them about it

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claiming to be ignorance on the matter, he begged his discussion partners to enlighten him on whatever topic they claimed to know something about

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what is known as Socratic irony usually appears at the beginning of these exchanges when Socrates gets his interlocutor to explain something to him or give a definition of something

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one can see this illustrated in the dialogue, the Euthyphro

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Socrates goes to the courthouse at Athens to stand trial for the charges raised against him

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he meets an acquaintance, Euthyphro

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Euthyphro says he is bringing charges against his own father

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something very unusual

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Socrates saw the immediate contradiction

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instead of pointing out this contradiction, he points out that there must be something he has not understood, and that Euthyphro must have some special knowledge into this matter

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this sounds like a compliment in the ears of Euthyphro who fails to see the irony in it

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Socrates then refutes every answer that Euthyphro givse

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Euthyphro suddenly runs off, claiming to have an urgent appointment

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Socrates is disappointed since he thought he was going to learn something about piety from Euthyphro

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Socrates' irony is a key factor in this process

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Kierkegaard was fascinated by this practice of Socratic irony

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he saw in his own Danish society of the 19th century people like Euthyphro

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they claimed to have knowledge about things about which they were in fact ignorant

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Aporia

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Greek word for being at a loss, or being unable to answer

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Socrates leads his interlocutors into a state of aporia in the course of his dialogue with them

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aporetic dialogue

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one of Plato's dialogues which ends with no definitive conclusion

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usually when one writes a treatise

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the goal is to express a thesis

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to establish a specific point

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but Socrates doesn't establish anything at all

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all that the reader has learned is a number of definitions are incorrect

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no positive definition survives the process of critical examination

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Socrates method appealed to Kierkegaard

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he enjoyed seeing in Socrates a thinker of negativity

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"the fact that several of Plato's dialogues end without result has a far deeper reason than I had earlier thought. It makes the reader self-active."

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Socrates makes other people reflective

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sophists

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traveling scholars of rhetoric

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gave lessons to the sons of rich families for a fee

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claimed to be able to teach useful skills

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public speaking

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logical reasoning

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argumentation

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general knowledge of various fields

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had a reputation of lawyers today

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they were eloquent speakers who could seduce people with language

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Socrates was associated with the sophists

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one of the arguments against him was that he made the weaker argument the stronger

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Socrates rejects this

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he claims not to know anything and so he doesn't teach anything

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he says people come to see him because they find it amusing to interrogate people in his own special way

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since he doesn't teach anything, he doesn't demand a fee

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Kierkegaard knew people who were like the sophists

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they claimed to know something about Christianity

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taught it while benefiting materially from their positions in the church

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enjoyed a comfortable life

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Kierkegaard found it deeply problematic

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attracted to Socrates' method to undermine these self-satisfied and overly confident people

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Socrates made people feel publicly humiliated

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some of his enemies raised charges against him

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when asked why he does this, Socrates tells of a story of a friend of his who went to the Oracle of Delphi

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the Oracle was a revered religious institution

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it was believed that the god Apollo spoke through the priestesses there

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the state would go to the Oracle to see if a proposed plan would prosper

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Socrates' friend asked the Oracle if there was anyone wiser than Socrates

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the Oracle said there was nobody wiser

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Socrates was perplexed

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he could think of nothing about which he had special knowledge about

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he considered other people wiser than he about numerous things

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questioned each expert which exposed that they knew very little for sure about their areas of expertise

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Socrates came to the conclusion that he was wiser in the sense that he at least knew that he didn't know

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in contrast to the others who claimed to know things that they didn't know

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Socrates was not a positive knowledge but a negative knowledge

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he felt it was his duty to go around Athens and test people on their claims of knowledge

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uses the image of a gadfly

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constantly irritates a horse by buzzing around and occasionally landing on it here and there

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"I think, the god attached me to the city, the sort of person who never ceases provoking you and persuading you and reproaching each of you the whole day long everywhere I settle."

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the gadfly of Athens, who performs a beneficial although irritating function of keeping people from falling into complacency

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keeping them on their guard with their respect to their knowledge

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he does this as following a command of the god, a religious duty

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Kierkegaard relished this vision and saw his own task as similar

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through of writings, he could become the gadfly of Copenhagen, keeping his countrymen from falling in into complacency