Soren Kierkegaard and the actual infinite

an initial overview

Abstract

This work aims to create a hermeneutic key that will analyze the application and foundation of the concept actual infinite in the work of the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, relating the logical construction of the concept in the philosophical tradition and the silent influence that the author receives from other Christians philosophers (such as Anselm, Cusano and Descartes) in the formulation of an actual infinite that is opposed to the Aristotelian potential infinite and which, in turn, underlies the ontological argument of these respective authors. For this, this article will focus its investigation on an initial mapping about the philosophical tradition on the definition of infinity, followed by clarification on the relationship between infinity and the debate about sin and human nature in the face of freedom in Kierkegaardian reflection, deepening the reflection on anxiety and despair as reverberations of the infinite in his work, in addition, obviously, to the delimitation of God as infinitely distant from human finitude.