Kierkegaard's Objective and Subjective Truths
In this essay, I will discuss the relationship between objective and subjective truth and how if one exists without the other, it results in madness. In Kierkegaard’s piece about the subjectivity of truth, he brings up the point that subjective truth taken to it’s extreme becomes indistinguishable from madness. This is a very unsettling notion, as we often relate madness with an existence that is lacking the presence of truth and reality. If subjective truth is a form of truth, it should have nothing to do with madness. How can madness and said truth be indistinguishable if they suggest different things? Solely because people that are only able to understand one type of truth, do not fit the mold of a person who is completely functional in society and would be noted as mad. Madness does not occur when a person is lacking truth and reality, but when one of those two is missing from a person’s existence. One can be completely filled with truths and have absolutely no sense of reality, making him mad. A person can only have a strong grasp on reality and avoid madness if he has a balance between objective and subjective truth. Kierkegaard goes on to explain this statement about truth being equivalent to madness by providing an example of an inmate of a psychiatric ward who tries to prove his sanity by proclaiming, “Bang, the earth is round!” each time he is cued to do so. In his opinion, stating something that is commonly accepted as true will prove that he is not mad, for only those that are insane do not speak the truth. By doing this, the inmate only makes himself appear even more insane than if he didn’t say anything at all. The irrelevance of his statement is what makes him appear this way. By randomly stating an objective truth, it illustrates that he has absolutely no idea what is going on around him, for it appears as if nothing is keeping him tied down to the appropriate moment. So objective truth without proper subjectivity and madness do become a bit