Concepts of Fear from Hegel to Kierkegaard

In the article for the first time in Russian, a detailed analysis of the concepts of fear in Hegel’s philosophy is presented. Despite the categorical distinction of different types of fear in Hegel’s original text, Russian-language transla­tions confuse different concepts, so for the article a comparison of fragments of the original German texts with the Russian editions was carried out. In the Phe­nomenology of Spirit and later in the Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences Hegel develops three concepts of fear: “Angst”, “Furcht” and “Schrecken”. In the dialectic of slave and master, he contrasts “Angst” as fear-dread or fright and “Furcht” as fear of death-the absolute master. In the section on absolute free­dom Hegel describes “Schrecken” – the horror of the negativity of death external to us, the contemplation of “vulgar” death without inner content. On the material of Danish historical dictionaries it is shown that the word usage of the concepts “Angest” and “Frygt” in 19th-century Denmark rather corresponds to Hegel’s description than to Kierkegaard’s. Presumably, Kierkegaard’s choice of the word “Angest” rather than “Frygt” to denote fear of Nothing was influenced by Luther’s use of “fear of God” (“Gottesfurcht”) to denote reverent obedience. Since “Frygt” is associated with reverent love for God, Kierkegaard will use the concept of “Frygt” to title his work “Fear and Trembling” on Abraham’s sac­rifice. The paper argues that the existential significance of fear was described by Hegel already in the Phenomenology of Spirit, and demonstrates direct parallels between Kierkegaard’s concept of “Angest” and Hegel’s concepts of “Furcht” and “Schrecken”. It is shown that although the extent of Hegel’s influence on Kierkegaard continues to be a matter of debate, an examination of Kier­kegaard’s notions of fear in the context of Hegel’s teaching on different kinds of fear can be productive for philosophical research.