(a) How does Soren Kierkegaard define the notion of 'subjectivity'? Explain it with reference to three stages of existence as…

The evolution of modern epistemology traces a critical trajectory from rationalist indubitability and empiricist naturalism to the existential revolt against abstract systematic thought.

Kierkegaard’s Subjectivity and the Three Stages of Existence

Soren Kierkegaard defines subjectivity through the dictum that "truth is subjectivity." For Kierkegaard, truth is not an objective, detached appropriation of metaphysical systems, but an inward, passionate commitment to an objective uncertainty. Objective truth treats human existence as a spectator, whereas subjective truth demands living authentically through choice and personal appropriation.

Existence unfolds dialectically through three qualitative stages:

The Aesthetic Stage is anchored in immediate sensuous pleasure, novelty, and the evasion of boredom, epitomised by figures like Don Juan. Because aesthetic immediacy relies on external conditions, it inevitably fragments the self, culminating in dread and despair.

The Ethical Stage is entered through a conscious existential choice. Here, the individual submits to universal moral laws and duties, achieving Socratic self-knowledge and civic responsibility. Yet, the ethical stage eventually collapses under the weight of universal demands because finite individuals inevitably experience guilt and the inability to achieve absolute righteousness.

The Religious Stage represents the summit of existence, accessed not through rational deliberation but via a non-rational "leap of faith" into the absurd. In this stage, a teleological suspension of the ethical occurs, as exemplified by Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac at God's command. Kierkegaard distinguishes between the Knight of Infinite Resignation, who gives up the finite through rational strength, and the Knight of Faith, who embraces the finite back by virtue of the absurd, passionately clinging to God despite objective uncertainty.

Descartes on the Certainty of the Self versus the World

Rene Descartes establishes certainty by applying systematic doubt, stripping away sensory perceptions and mathematical truths via the dream and evil demon hypotheses. This doubt terminates at the indubitable truth: Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). The thinking self (res cogitans) cannot be doubted, as the very act of doubting confirms the existence of a thinking agent. Descartes derives his criteria of certainty—clarity and distinctness—from this immediate intuition.

Self-knowledge critically differs from knowledge of the external world (res extensa). Knowledge of the self is direct, immediate, and non-inferential; there is zero ontological gap between the knower and the known, making it immune to hyperbolic doubt. Conversely, knowledge of the external world is indirect, representational, and mediated through ideas. Because ideas might be deceptive or illusory, knowledge of res extensa requires proving the existence of a non-deceiving God to guarantee the veridical nature of clear and distinct sensory perceptions. Thus, res cogitans is known prior to, and with vastly greater certainty than, the physical world.

Locke’s Epistemology and Refutation of Innate Ideas

John Locke refutes the rationalist doctrine of innate ideas by demonstrating that universal consent is non-existent. Children, idiots, and uncultivated minds possess no awareness of speculative maxims (such as the principle of non-contradiction) or practical moral laws. Locke argues that asserting ideas exist in the mind without conscious awareness is contradictory; furthermore, attributing erroneous innate principles to human nature would make God the author of error.

Locke posits the mind as a tabula rasa (white paper), devoid of all characters. Knowledge originates solely in experience, which branches into two sources: Sensation (external objects imparting impressions through the senses) and Reflection (the internal observation of the mind's own operations).

The mind passively receives simple ideas (e.g., coldness, hardness) and actively combines, compares, and abstracts them into complex ideas of substances, modes, and relations. Locke further divides object properties into primary qualities (objective and inseparable from the body, such as solidity, extension, and motion) and secondary qualities (subjective powers producing sensations in us, such as colour, taste, and sound). Knowledge consists in the perception of the agreement or disagreement of ideas, classified into three hierarchical degrees: intuitive (immediate and self-evident, yielding the highest certainty), demonstrative (mediated through proofs, like mathematics), and sensitive (perceiving the particular existence of finite external beings, bearing the lowest certainty).

Modern philosophy thus demonstrates that Descartes' quest for foundational rational certainty and Locke's empirical limits of representation ultimately necessitate Kierkegaard's existential turn, showing that objective epistemological frameworks cannot resolve the inward dilemma of human existence.