What did Kierkegaard consider to be “reflection”?

Question

After mentioning Kierkegaard's leveling and mathematical equality concepts, this passage is quoted:

The individual no longer belongs to God, to himself, to his beloved, to his art or to his science; he is conscious of belonging in all things to an abstraction to which he is subjected by reflection.

(emphasis mine) What does he mean by 'subjected by reflection'?

Answer 1

Warning: Not a Kierkegaard expert.

Here's a commentary of the passage you quoted:

If Kierkegaard is correct, rather than being ourselves, we tend to conform to an image or idea associated with being a certain type of person. That's what Kierkegaard means by belonging to an "abstraction" (an image or idea) created by "reflection" (self conscious thinking). (p. 408)

Please note that "reflection" is a technical term in Kierkegaard's philosophy. I found an online essay disentangling this difficult notion. This might help you understanding the passage further. (I cannot comment on or vouch for the essay's accuracy, however.)

Answer 2

"subjected by reflection" I think means that the state of belonging in all things to an abstraction is caused by reflection (theoretical thinking). I don't think there's any philosophical import there... just the usual sense of the word "subjected".

On "reflection", I got the sense in Kierkegaard that the concept is simple, but it's hard to discern because we're so embedded in that mode of thinking, rather than "reflection" in itself being a complicated concept.