Originators of Neo-Fideism: Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein

The aim of this essay is to study and review of Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein’s Fideism. We show that new fideism is based on keeping faith despite of limits of reason. In other words, one could have simultaneously objective arguments against something, but at the same time, have believed in it. For Kierkegaard, having faith is a free and deliberate act, and religious belief should be built on adventure and “leap of faith”. He thinks faith is worthwhile, only when it is a kind of taking risk. Wittgenstein, following Kierkegaard’s way of thinking, holds that it is possible to have faith without arguments; i.e., one could have faith in something, but have no any reason to prove it, because a collection of beliefs retraced at the end to some beliefs that are not proved. Thus, he says having faith is a kind of language game which is built on religious grounds. However, this needs practice and action.