Thought-Experiment: On Loving The Oppressors

Abstract

This is a thought-experiment, an attempt to put two great philosophers, Søren Kierkegaard and Paulo Freire into a conversation with one another on the notion of love. In Works of Love, Søren Kierkegaard explicated what the Christian neighbor love ought to be. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, on the other hand, Paulo Freire stated that the oppressed must love the oppressor but without providing reasons. This strange connection of the notion of love between these two thinkers is the object of this thought-experiment. What can we say about Freire's unelaborated statement using Kierkegaard's ideas of neighbor love? This thesis stands upon this simple question.