The Tale of Two Seducers: Existential Entrapment in the Works of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky

Petr Vaškovic

doi:10.1515/kierke-2021-0018

The Tale of Two Seducers: Existential Entrapment in the Works of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky

Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook ◽

10.1515/kierke-2021-0018 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 431-457

Author(s):

Petr Vaškovic

Keyword(s):

Moral Development ◽

Ethical Perspective ◽

Instrumental Approach ◽

Simple Question

Abstract The present study poses a simple question, namely, what are the specific forces that might at times hinder rather than advance individual moral development? To answer this inquiry, I will investigate the writings of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, examining the two aesthetic protagonists found in their works—Johannes the Seducer and Dmitri Karamazov. I will utilise the Kierkegaardian framework of the three existential stages to illustrate that it is an over-reliance on gratification, coupled with an instrumental approach towards beings that not only prevents these two aesthetes from behaving morally, but also from even recognising the ethical perspective as a viable existential position.

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MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE REFORMATORIES

Religious Education ◽

10.1080/0034408130080315a ◽

1913 ◽

Vol 6 (5) ◽

pp. 396-402

Author(s):

R. B. von Kleinsmid

Keyword(s):

Moral Development

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Test Validation Without Measurement

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000253 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 204-214 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Emilie Lacot ◽

Mohammad H. Afzali ◽

Stéphane Vautier

Keyword(s):

Test Data ◽

Test Scores ◽

Scientific Explanation ◽

Test Validation ◽

Clinical Tests ◽

Ethical Perspective ◽

Power Of Test ◽

Memory Accuracy ◽

Social Uses ◽

Special Case

Abstract. Test validation based on usual statistical analyses is paradoxical, as, from a falsificationist perspective, they do not test that test data are ordinal measurements, and, from the ethical perspective, they do not justify the use of test scores. This paper (i) proposes some basic definitions, where measurement is a special case of scientific explanation; starting from the examples of memory accuracy and suicidality as scored by two widely used clinical tests/questionnaires. Moreover, it shows (ii) how to elicit the logic of the observable test events underlying the test scores, and (iii) how the measurability of the target theoretical quantities – memory accuracy and suicidality – can and should be tested at the respondent scale as opposed to the scale of aggregates of respondents. (iv) Criterion-related validity is revisited to stress that invoking the explanative power of test data should draw attention on counterexamples instead of statistical summarization. (v) Finally, it is argued that the justification of the use of test scores in specific settings should be part of the test validation task, because, as tests specialists, psychologists are responsible for proposing their tests for social uses.

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