The aesthetic dimension of nature in Kierkegaard: a path towards a metaphysical look at nature?

Abstract

Kierkegaard (1813-1855), thinker of modernity, although very critical of the latter, fully belongs to a world which has seen its vision of the universe transform under the effect of the development of modern science . Although he is above all interested in freedom, the Danish thinker is not indifferent to the spectacle of nature, as certain passages from signed (non-pseudonymous) works or unpublished writings during his lifetime show. By mainly using these texts, this communication wishes to highlight in Kierkegaard elements allowing to reveal the presence, in nature, of a reality which goes beyond what our senses can perceive and what our calculations or our experiences can validate, in other words, a metaphysical dimension, conducive to aesthetic contemplation and indicating the path to an authentic ecology.