What were the most likely sources of inspiration of Kierkegaard in creating the leveling concept?
1 Answer
Though I have not read any Kierkegaard in many many years, I believe that he was inspired by the importance of Kantian notions of individual moral agents/agency, and, especially, by his great aversion to Hegel and his "leveling" notions of the collective, absolute, objective mind; desiring instead to emphasize the importance of the individual [and his/her] mind.
As he posited, "truth is subjectivity,” i.e. "An objective uncertainty held fast in an appropriation-process of the most passionate inwardness is the truth, the highest truth attainable for the individual." Though, as i said, I have not read any Kierkegaard in a very long time, I believe this is from his Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments. Have a look here https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/.
