Time and Eternity: Hegel and/or Kierkegaard

Seminar with professor George Pattison from University of Glasgow.

In his Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift Kierkegaard attacks Hegel for presenting a vision of human life from the point of view of eternity or . sub specie aeternitatis. But is this what Hegel taught? Although recent interpretations of Hegel have focussed on how he emphasizes the temporal nature of human life and thought, it is also possible to read him as adopting the position Kierkegaard attacks. Yet Kierkegaard himself also insists that human life is only fully understood when the relation to eternity is taken into account.

In this paper George Pattison explores how these similarities and differences throw light on the concept of divine eternity itself.