Höfer, Death as a Teacher of Love

Abstract: In this paper, I will argue that Kierkegaard considers death an instructor that can teach us valuable lessons about existence and make us love each other in a more genuine way. This idea appears in three different claims made by Kierkegaard: First, reflecting on death can help us love the neighbor by showing us our essential equality before God. Second, love towards the dead teaches us how to love the living correctly and becomes a kind of test we can apply to ourselves in order to ensure the purity of our love. Finally, an analysis of Kierkegaard’s concepts of earnestness and regret demonstrates that death can impel us to love each other by showing us what is essential in life. Among other things, this discussion aims to illustrate that there is very much a loving and humanizing aspect in Kierkegaard’s views on death, unlike what some commentators have suggested.