Pericles, Søren Kierkegaard and the PM

Peter Jones of the Spectator pithily compares Boris Johnson to the Greek hero Pericles. The Athenian and the British Prime Minister are, according to Jones, proponents of a ‘hard line, needs must approach’, the former shutting off Athens from the Spartan invaders, the latter shutting down Great Britain in response to the Coronavirus outbreak. The comparison is a tad grandiose but nonetheless instructive. Søren Kierkegaard, the 19^th Century Danish theologian and philosopher helps explain Jones’ comparison. Kierkegaard proposed that a person might achieve goodness through action in faith and that, however absurd action might be, a leader might ‘through his action receive the highest good’. Jones was right to compare Johnson and Pericles, but the duo should be accompanied with the countless leaders in the NHS at this time who are putting their front foot forward and saving lives day by day. Although Kierkegaard was famously cynical of the methods of the scientific researcher, he would approve of the action of scientific men and women in the NHS today, and of the bravery of Johnson and other decision makers.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/pericles-would-have-approved-of-the-pm-s-response-to-the-pandemic

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kierkegaard-Concluding-Unscientific-Postscript-Philosophy/dp/0521709105