Kierkegaard’s Deontology of Love

Abstract

Abstract Deontology is mostly reflected and discussed in connection with Kantian ethics, but in the history of thought there is found another outstanding concept of deontological ethics: Kierkegaard’s ethics of love. This paper clarifies the deontological nature of Kierkegaard’s ethics as it is formulated in his key ethical treatise Works of Love (1847). According to Kierkegaard, whose ethics of love was basically his own original interpretation of the Christian concept of neighbor-love, duty is the distinctive feature of love—since Christian love is defined as a command to ‘love thy neighbor.’ For Kierkegaard it is precisely this duty that creates a dividing line between authentic love and non-authentic love: the first one stands for the Christian love for the neighbor, while the latter refers to the natural concept of love as an emotion or inclination exemplified mainly by éros and friendship. The deontological concept of love is challenged later in the article by other aspects of love, such as a need, feeling, and virtue, which at first sight seem to be in a contrast with the concept of love as a duty.