Sartre\u27s View of Kierkegaard as Transhistorical Man

This paper illuminates the central arguments in Sartre\u27s UNESCO address, \u27The Singular Universal. The address begins by asking whether objective facts tell us everything there is to know about Kierkegaard. Sartre\u27s answer is negative. The question then arises as to whether we can lay hold of Kierkegaard\u27s irreducible subjectivity by seeing him as alive for us today, i.e., as transhistorical. Sartre\u27s answer here is affirmative. However, a close inspection of this answer exposes a deeper level to the address. The struggle to find a place for Kierkegaard within the world of objective knowledge is an allegory. It mirrors Sartre\u27s struggle to find a place for his existentialism within the Marxism that dominates his later thinking