Although one may need faith in order to accept the truth, one does not need it in order to accept Kierkegaard. .
Before an examination of the text can occur, the relationship between Søren Kierkegaard and the author of the Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments must be established and understood. The pseudonymous author goes by the name "Johannes Climacus."" It may, at first, seem senseless to try to divine the meaning behind the pseudonym when the true author is already known, but the name Johannes Climacus itself holds the key to understanding the issue at hand. The surname Climacus, a Latin word which is translated as climber, signifies the fundamental premise behind the pseudonymous authorship: Johannes Climacus does not yet have the truth, nor is he, therefore, a Christian. He merely presents an opposing, dialectic argument to the System presumably espoused by Hegel and his many followers. The text is subtitled A Mimic-Pathetic-Dialectic Composition An Existential Contribution. The first phrase makes it clear that it is Kierkegaard's intent to present, through the services of Climacus, an alternate, and presumably more favorable manner of encountering and attaining truth, in a rhetoric similar to that of Hegel. Climacus presents a dialectic composition to counter that of Hegel. The dialectic pits the objective against the subjective as possible means of ascertaining truth. The fundamental difference between the dialectic of Climacus and that of Hegel is inherent in the fact that Climacus, and presumably Kierkegaard, do not intend for the subjective to be synthesized with the objective, but rather for the reader to realize that a viable and acceptable dialectic between the two does not exist. There exists only one path to truth: subjectivity. .
The most important and essential argument presented by Climacus involves the choice between the objective and subjective paths to the truth.
