DOCSLIB.ORG

THE POLITICAL in KIERKEGAARD's WORKS of LOVE By

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE POLITICAL in KIERKEGAARD's WORKS of LOVE By LOVE’S PRAXIS: THE POLITICAL IN KIERKEGAARD’S WORKS OF LOVE by DARREN EDWARD SURMAN UTZ MCKNIGHT, COMMITTEE CHAIR TED TROST BARBARA CHOTINER NAOMI CHOI TED MILLER A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2012 Copyright Darren Edward Surman 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT The goal of this dissertation is to incorporate Kierkegaard’s Works of Love into current theorization of love as a political concept by showing how it models political sensibilities that can be responsive to contemporary problems of political and social injustice. It will be shown that the themes of ‘love’ and ‘the neighbor’, as contained in Works of Love, represent a politics that are critical not only in combating individual commitments to what bell hooks calls, “…the will to dominate and subjugate…” (hooks 1995, 262-272), but the structures of discrimination and oppression that result from such individual commitments as well. This dissertation, then, is concerned with the political subjectivity of the individual as it is, potentially, oriented around the praxis of love of the neighbor, concepts that populate what Lukács termed Kierkegaard’s “qualitative dialectic” (Lukács [1952] 1980, 256). ii DEDICATION Dedicated to Mom, Dad, Stacy and Gretchen. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Kierkegaard begins Works of Love with a prayer. I would like to begin, in gratitude, with the same prayer. Kierkegaard writes, How could one speak properly about love if you were forgotten, you God of love, source of all love in heaven and on earth; you who spared nothing but in love gave everything; you who are love, so that one who loves is what he is only by being in you! This dissertation on love would not have been possible if You, who spared nothing but in love gave everything, had been forgotten. I thank You for the strength, love and mercy that You gave me to complete this task. Dissertations are not written in isolation, and this one is no exception. I simply could not have written this without the loving assistance of so many. I would like to thank the University of Alabama Graduate Council Fellowship for supporting me during the past year and enabling me to finish the dissertation. I would like to thank Dr. Jacqueline Morgan and the McNair Scholar’s Program. Without my McNair experience, it is doubtful that graduate school would have ever appeared as an option to me. I am immensely grateful to the education and support that I received from them. I would like to thank Dr. Ted Trost. He may never know how much his early efforts to bring to me back to school mean, but his support will never be forgotten. Dr. Trost once told me, “You’ve earned an A in school, now go earn an A with your life.” A truly Kierkegaardian statement, born out of care and support that have extended to the present. Thank you Dr. Trost. iv I would like to thank Dr. Utz McKnight. I cannot express how much I appreciate all he has done for me over the last seven years. His friendship, support, guidance, and advocacy have been nothing short of radical. He is the most inspiring professor I have ever had the pleasure of learning from, and he will remain my example for what it means to be a professor who cares about students and the work of justice. Thank you Dr. McKnight. I would like to thank my committee members Dr. Barbara Chotiner and Dr. Naomi Choi for providing the helpful insights that they did. The writing of this dissertation would not have been possible without the support and efforts of my mother-in-law, Melissa Hughey. I thank her for her tireless efforts of the last seventeen months which allowed me to focus on the research in way that would have been impossible without. Thank you Melissa. I am nothing without my family, and I would be nowhere without the love of my Mom, Dad, sister Stephanie, and Nanaw and Papaw. My Mom is the shining example of boundless and unconditional love and sacrifice. Soccer and karate practices, homework in the car, peanut butter sandwiches, and innumerable other examples of love through the years made me who I am today. Thank you Mom. My Dad made me the lover of learning that I am today. I will be eternally grateful for all the time I have had with him traveling the country and working on airplanes, all the while having discussions about everything under the sun. We have learned so much together and we will continue to do so. Thank you Dad. My sister has simply been the best sister I could have had. Her support and love through the years have been crucial. She may never know what she means to me, but I thank her for all that she has been to me. Thank you Stephanie. My wonderful grandparents, my Nanaw and Papaw, whose love for me through the years was the source of so much joy. I thank them. v And finally, my wife Stacy and our daughter Gretchen. Stacy gets me out the door each morning, she loved and supported me during the most trying times of this dissertation. She endured so much and my love and respect for her only continue to grow. She is my one and only love and my life without her would be meaningless. I will never be able to thank her enough for all the she has done and does for me, as nothing about this dissertation would have happened without her. Thank you Stacy. And our daughter Gretchen, who has expanded the boundaries of my heart in ways that I never thought possible. To write so deeply on love for the past year and half, while simultaneously feeling new love so deeply, was a profound experience. I thank her for all the breaks she gave me when she needed to play or watch videos. I could not have written this without her. Thank you Gretchen. vi CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION............................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................ iv CHAPTER 1: WHY LOVE? WHY KIERKEGAARD? Why Love? Why Kierkegaard.................................................................................... 1 A Hint of What Follows.............................................................................................. 9 Outline of the Dissertation.......................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 2: THE CURSE AND BLESSING OF LONG SHADOWS 28 Critics of Kierkegaardian Politics............................................................................... 31 Supporters of Kierkegaardian Politics........................................................................ 49 CHAPTER 3: THE LAW AND THE ESTRANGED: KIERKEGAARD, ŽIŽEK, 59 AND TILLICH Žižek’s Love-as-Cruelty and Monstrous Neighbors............................................ 61 Tillich’s Love of the Estranged............................................................................ 71 CHAPTER 4: MONGOVEN’S ETHICS OF CARE AND KIERKEGAARD’S 83 MERCIFULNESS CHAPTER 5: CORNEL WEST’S “OTHER” KIERKEGAARDIAN 112 INFLUENCES: FROM RADICAL HISTORICISM TO THE “RADICALNESS” OF CHRISTIAN HISTORICISM Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought with Comparisons to Works of 128 Love........................................................................................................... Prophesy Deliverance!........................................................................................... 140 vii CHAPTER 6: THE ACTUAL SHAPE OF KIERKEGAARD’S POLITICS OF 154 NEIGHBOR LOVE REFERENCES............................................................................................................ 175 viii CHAPTER 1: WHY LOVE? WHY KIERKEGAARD? …the cure is precisely to learn all over again the most important thing, to understand oneself in one’s longing for community. – Kierkegaard, Works of Love Love is a revolution. – Kierkegaard, Works of Love Why love? Why Kierkegaard? In answering these questions, I point to the two quotes above. I point to the political questions they inspire. What cure is Kierkegaard talking about? A cure for whom? What? What does it mean to “learn all over again” how to “understand oneself” in one’s “longing” for community? How is love a revolution? These are beautiful, political questions. They are elusive, ambiguous, provocative and pregnant with possibility. I, myself, only realized such political possibilities having first made my way first through the thought of Malcolm X, Weber, Marx, Christopher Lasch, Nietzsche, Foucault, and so many others. All of these writers provided me, in their own special ways, the indispensable tools of social and economic critique that are needed for progressive politics. Yet, just as for Judith Butler, Cornel West, Wittgenstein, and so many others, Kierkegaard stood out amongst the rest. For me, Kierkegaard stood out as describing the very politics that I felt got me to where I was. Those politics were embodied in the revolutionary systems of radical support that I had benefited from. These were not the politics of political and familial connections or support; rather, they were the politics of love. They were a politics of love that, as Kierkegaard described in chapters one, two three, and six of the second series of deliberations in Works of Love, abides, 1 builds up, hopes in all things and believes in all things, (Kierkegaard, 1995). They emanated from my parents and one professor in particular.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Kierkegaard And/Or Catholicism: a Matter of Conjunctions Center for Catholic Studies, Seton Hall University
    Seton Hall University eRepository @ Seton Hall Center for Catholic Studies Faculty Seminars and Center for Catholic Studies Core Curriculum Seminars 2008 Kierkegaard and/or Catholicism: A Matter of Conjunctions Center for Catholic Studies, Seton Hall University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/catholic-studies Part of the Christianity Commons, Practical Theology Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Center for Catholic Studies, Seton Hall University, "Kierkegaard and/or Catholicism: A Matter of Conjunctions" (2008). Center for Catholic Studies Faculty Seminars and Core Curriculum Seminars. 14. https://scholarship.shu.edu/catholic-studies/14 Seton Hall University eRepository @ Seton Hall Center for Catholic Studies Faculty Seminars Proceedings Summer 2008 Kierkegaard and/or Catholicism: A Matter of Conjuctions Center for Catholic Studies, Seton Hall University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.shu.edu/summer-seminars Part of the Christianity Commons, Practical Theology Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Center for Catholic Studies, Seton Hall University, "Kierkegaard and/or Catholicism: A Matter of Conjuctions" (2008). Center for Catholic Studies Faculty Seminars. Paper 4. http://scholarship.shu.edu/summer-seminars/4 ―Kierkegaard and/or Catholicism: A Matter of Conjuctions‖ 2008 Summer Seminar Center for Catholic Studies Seton Hall University CENTER FOR CATHOLIC STUDIES Faculty Summer Seminar 2008 ―Kierkegaard and/or Catholicism: A Matter of Conjunctions‖ Facilitator: William Cahoy Dean, School of Theology and Seminary, Saint John’s University May 20-22 (8:30 am to 12:00 pm) “Kierkegaard and/or Catholicism: A matter of conjunctions” It is often said (accurately) that one of the distinguishing marks of a Catholic understanding of life is its both-and approach in contrast to the either-or approach more characteristic of a Protestant sensibil- ity.
    [Show full text]
  • Kierkegaard: on Selfhood, Love, and Politics
    Kierkegaard: On Selfhood, Love, and Politics Katie Canjar Undergraduate Honours Thesis Presented to The Department of Political Science University of Lethbridge In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for Honours Thesis Designation in Political Science Submitted: April 15, 2013 Advisor: Dr. John von Heyking Second Reader: Dr. Lance Grigg i Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter Two: A Society Without God........................................................................................................4 I. Despair............................................................................................................................................... 5 A. Despair of Ignorance....................................................................................................................6 B. Despair of Weakness.................................................................................................................... 9 C. Despair of Defiance................................................................................................................... 13 II. Despair of Modern Politics: The Crowd.........................................................................................14 III. The Next Step: From Despair to Selfhood.................................................................................... 18 Chapter Three: Selfhood and Ethical-Religious Love............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Denying and Becoming: a Defense of Kierkegaard's Works of Love
    Denying and Becoming: A Defense of Kierkegaard’s Works of Love Laura Howard A perennial concern with Kierkegaard’s Works of Love is that its condemnation of preferential love is incoherent, inhibits the proper formation of self and of special relationships (i.e. friendships, romantic relationships), or both. In this essay, I argue that (1) Kierkegaard coherently rejects selfshness while allowing for and encouraging special relationships to exist, and (2) understanding love as a double movement (like that of faith described in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling) is essential to understand- ing this basic claim. Tis essay thus draws upon and goes beyond previous analyses of Kierkegaard’s work, demonstrating how the double movement can be used to understand neighbor love as all at once selfess, involving the kind of preference necessary for special relationships, and positively forming the one who loves her neighbor. Søren Kierkegaard’s Works of Love1 has long been work of M. Jamie Ferreira, whose commentary seeks to accused of recommending a conception of love unlivable in address whether Kierkegaard’s understanding of becoming some way—by ignoring crucial bodily realities, presenting a self in WL “only allows concern for others or whether it an impossible ideal, failing to be coherent, or some combi- requires it” (2001, 7). In defense of the latter interpretation, nation of the three.2 One perennial concern is that his Ferreira emphasizes Kierkegaard’s identifcation of the account of love3 demeans meaningful human relationships. human need to love and of Christianity’s teaching about For Kierkegaard, Christian love must be conceived of as a proper self-love as necessary for neighbor love.
    [Show full text]
  • The Religious Philosophy of "Johannes Climacus" the Religious Philosophy of "Johannes Climacus"
    -- - - ~~--~~~- THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF "JOHANNES CLIMACUS" THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF "JOHANNES CLIMACUS" By PAUL GALLAGHER, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University (c) Copyright by Paul Gallagher, January 1999 MASTER OF ARTS (1999) McMaster University (Religious Studies) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The Religious Philosophy of "Johannes Climacus" AUTHOR: Paul Gallagher, B.A. (Brock University) SUPERVISORS: John C. Robertson Peter J. Widdicombe Ellen E.F. Badone NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 113 ii Abstract In this thesis I examine the philosophy of "Johannes Climacus", the pseudonym under whose name Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) wrote Philosophical Fragments (1844) and Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments (1846). I argue that these two works can only be fully understood when they are read as the works of Johannes Climacus rather than his creator, Kierkegaard. It will be shown throughout the thesis that the personality of Climacus and the philosophical positions advanced in his writings inform each other. Besides the personality ofClimacus, particular attention is also given to his opposition to Hegelianism. An appreciation ofClimacus' thought will be gained through an analysis of his first work, Philosophical Fragments, in which he attempts to demonstrate that the essential features of Christianity, such as transcendence, sin, the incarnation, and faith, are incompatible with a Hegelian world-view. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, John C. Robertson, who has patiently guided me in the writing of this thesis. His conversations have been an invaluable resource. Ellen Badone and Peter Widdicombe have also been helpful readers and supporters of my work.
    [Show full text]
  • Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing by Sören Kierkegaard
    Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing by Sören Kierkegaard This book was first published by Harper in 1938. It was translated from the Danish and contains an introductory essay by Douglas V. Steere. Prepared for Religion Online by Ted and Willie Brock. Translator’s Introduction by Douglas V. Steere A helpful summary of Kierketaard's basic positions, written by an outstanding scholar of his work. Douglass Steere was Professor of philosophy at Haverford College. Preface A woman doing needlework on an altar cloth does not want the work admired or criticized, but rather that the intent of the work is that it be seen for its higher purpose. Kierkegaard desires his writing receive the same attention. Chapter 1: Introduction: Man and the Eternal In relation to the eternal, a man ages neither in the sense of time nor in the sense of an accumulation of past events. There is something eternal in a man, and the eternal must be able to exist and to be grasped within every change. Chapter 2: Remorse, Repentance, Confession: Eternity’s Emissaries to Man Remorse is a guide that calls out to the wanderer that he should take care. In confession one becomes at one with himself. Chapter 3: Barriers to Willing One Thing: Variety and Great Moments Are Not One Thing To will one thing can only mean to will the good, because every other object is not a unity. The will that only wills that another object, therefore, must become double-minded. Chapter 4: Barriers to Willing One Thing: The Reward-Disease If a man can will one thing, then he must will the Good, for the Good alone is one.
    [Show full text]
  • Contents Page
    NUMBER 54: March 2009 Contents Page ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS 2 ARTICLES Kierkegaard at the APA (?) Edward F. Mooney 11 REVIEWS Jorge Miranda de Almedia and Marcio Gimenes de Paula, and Deyve Redyson, Søren Kierkegaard no Brasil By Marcio Gimenes de Paula and Patricia Carina Dip 17 Gert Posselt, Sørensen om Kierkegaard: Villy Sørensens udvalgte artikler om Søren Kierkegaard By Poul Houe 19 Merold Westphal, Levinas and Kierkegaard in Dialogue by J. Aaron Simmons 28 Editor: Gordon D. Marino Spanish Editor: Begonya Saez Tajafuerce Announcement The 6 th International Kierkegaard Conference CALL FOR PAPERS “Why Kierkegaard Still Matters” The Hong Kierkegaard Library will hold its Sixth International Kierkegaard Conference June 27-30, 2010. As in the past, the conference will include a dissertation panel. The topic of the conference is “Why Kierkegaard Still Matters.” Not coincidentally, this is the same issue that will be explored in the festschrift for Robert Perkins to be published by Mercer University Press in November of 2010. Scholars interested in presenting papers should send an abstract to Gordon Marino by February 1st, 2010 and a completed paper by April 15th, 2010. A reading length of 20 minutes will again be strictly observed. People willing to serve as commentators on papers should contact Gordon Marino. There will also be a workshop pegged to the question, “What is the relevance of Kierkegaard to the clergy today?” People interested in guiding or participating in that workshop should email Gordon Marino at [email protected] 2 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS Friends of the Kierkegaard Library Fall Meeting 2008 This gathering took place in conjunction with the Julia Watkin Memorial Lecture which was given this year by Bruce Kirmmse on the evening of November 18 at St.
    [Show full text]
  • God Is the Middle Term: Kierkegaard's View of Erotic Love
    GOD IS THE MIDDLE TERM: KIERKEGAARD’S VIEW OF EROTIC LOVE Chris Kalaitzidis Submitted to Central European University Department of Philosophy In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Supervisor: David Weberman Budapest, Hungary 2016 CEU eTD Collection Abstract The topic of this thesis is Kierkegaard’s view of erotic love. Kierkegaard is concerned with proper love among believing Christians and I will restrict myself to that issue. The main questions of my thesis are: What, for Kierkegaard, is erotic love? What are its requirements? Is it achievable? What I am concerned is to understand whether and how, in Kierkegaard’s view, erotic love is compatible with Christian faith, and even more strongly, requires Christian faith. My final conclusion will be an optimistic one: erotic love is indeed a real possibility for human beings. CEU eTD Collection i CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 1. Works of Love: the sole locus for Kierkegaard's positive view of erotic love ..................................... 7 2. Exposition of Erotic Love in Works of Love ........................................................................................ 12 3. When God is not the middle term ........................................................................................................ 21 Johannes the Seducer ............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Albert Camus: Rebellion Through the Ethical Frameworks of Emmanuel Levinas and Soren Kierkegaard
    The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Theses 2020 Albert Camus: Rebellion Through the Ethical Frameworks of Emmanuel Levinas and Soren Kierkegaard Conor Spence The University of Notre Dame Australia Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses Part of the Philosophy Commons COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 WARNING The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further copying or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. Publication Details Spence, C. (2020). Albert Camus: Rebellion Through the Ethical Frameworks of Emmanuel Levinas and Soren Kierkegaard (Master of Philosophy (School of Philosophy and Theology)). University of Notre Dame Australia. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/ 263 This dissertation/thesis is brought to you by ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Albert Camus: Rebellion through the ethical frameworks of Emmanuel Levinas and Soren Kierkegaard Conor Spence Supervisors: Professor Philip Matthews Dr Richard Hamilton Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Philosophy School of Philosophy and Theology Fremantle Campus 12 December 2019 1 | P a g e Statement of Authorship This research is the candidate’s own work and contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other institution. To the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text.
    [Show full text]
  • Faith and Loneliness: Kierkegaard and Fackenheim on Abrahamic Faith in Genesis 22
    Faith and Loneliness: Kierkegaard and Fackenheim on Abrahamic Faith in Genesis 22 by Joshua Martin A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Wycliffe College and the Theological Department of the Toronto School of Theology In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael’s College. Copyright © Joshua Martin 2014 Faith and Loneliness: Kierkegaard and Fackenheim on Abrahamic Faith in Genesis 22 Joshua Martin Master of Arts in Theology University of St. Michael’s College 2014 Abstract The strength of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous Fear & Trembling lay in its portrayal of faith, specifically Abraham’s faithful obedience in Genesis 22, the binding of Isaac. However, Jewish philosopher and theologian Emil Fackenheim raises a problem with this portrayal of faith, namely the radical solitude it entails. Using the midrashic interpretation of Genesis 22 Fackenheim shows that faith is not and cannot be isolated, but must involve a three-term relation between God, one human, and all fellow humanity. Yet within Kierkegaard’s acknowledged (i.e., not pseudonymous) authorship, specifically Works of Love, the same three-term relation is also evident in Kierkegaard’s own writing. Engaging Works of Love, and in conversation with Genesis 22, this thesis argues that Kierkegaard’s own conception of faith, while sharing the virtues of Fear & Trembling, is more fully understood as akin to love, as both are necessarily manifest in obedience and in a three-term relation of human—God—human. ii Acknowledgements Without the generous funding of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Scholarship, awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, this project may never have been undertaken.
    [Show full text]
  • At the Fringes of Personhood. an Explorative Essay on the Dialogue of I and Thou and the Poetics of the Impersonal
    religions Article In the Middle of Love: At the Fringes of Personhood. An Explorative Essay on the Dialogue of I and Thou and the Poetics of the Impersonal Kasper Lysemose Department of Systematic Theology, Aarhus University, Jens Christian Skous Vej 3, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; [email protected] Abstract: In Works of Love, Søren Kierkegaard introduces the idea that God’s love is “the middle term.” It is a love that manages to be in the middle of all created being. To that extent, love is not just one relation among others, but the “being-in-relation” as such. It is, in Heideggerian terms, “the with” of being-with. This implies, further, that the middle is as inconspicuous as it is ubiquitous. According to Martin Buber, however, there is a privileged relation to the middle in the I–Thou relation. It is here that it reveals itself. For Buber, this is so on the strength of two important traits of this dyadic relation: that it is dialogical and personal. It is in dialogue that I and You are responsive to the word of God; and it is in personal co-presence that the theophany of “the absolute person” may occur. This paper explores these tenets of “philosophy of dialogue” at their fringes. Accordingly, it explores the impersonal in the person and the monologue in dialogue. More specifically, it aims to show how: (a) the impersonal in the person is disclosed in love and angst and how (b) the monologue in dialogue is expressed in a poetics of the impersonal. Citation: Lysemose, Kasper.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT the Legitimacy of the Comic: Kierkegaard and The
    ABSTRACT The Legitimacy of the Comic: Kierkegaard and the Importance of the Comic for His Ethics and Theology Will Williams, Ph.D. Mentor: Paul Martens, Ph.D. While some consider the comic to be a trivial subject, fit mainly for amusement or distraction, Søren Kierkegaard disagrees. This dissertation examines Kierkegaard’s understanding of the nature of the comic and how he believes even the triviality of comic jest to be deeply tied to ethical and theological earnestness. First, I examine Kierkegaard’s understanding of the comic, irony, and humor, drawing primarily from Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846). I argue that, for Kierkegaard, the comic is a contradiction or misrelation that is essentially though not absolutely painless, providing a “way out.” The comic is a contradiction between norms, suggesting that it springs from one’s perspective in a way that holds important implications for one’s ethical and theological worldview. Kierkegaard believes that subjective development is closely tied to one’s capacity to perceive the comic, making the comic both diagnostic of and formative for one’s subjective state. For him, the Christian is far from humorless, instead having the maximum human capacity to perceive the comic. Next, I show that the previously argued conception of the comic can be found in other works by Kierkegaard: Prefaces (1844), Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1847), and the Corsair affair (c.1845-1848). Then, I examine representatives of the Deconstructionist tradition of reading Kierkegaard, namely Louis Mackey, Roger Poole, Elsebet Jegstrup, and Mark C. Taylor. I argue that, while they accurately perceive the widespread irony in Kierkegaard’s corpus, they incorrectly conclude that such irony is a sign of his lack of earnest interest in philosophy and theology.
    [Show full text]
  • The Danish Doctor of Dread by GORDON MARINO
    March 17, 2012, 2:30 pm New York Times The Danish Doctor of Dread By GORDON MARINO Anxiety: We worry. A gallery of contributors count the ways. The way we negotiate anxiety plays no small part in shaping our lives and character. And yet, historically speaking, the lovers of wisdom, the philosophers, have all but repressed thinking about that amorphous feeling that haunts many of us hour by hour, and day by day. The 19th-century philosopher-theologian Soren Kierkegaard stands as a striking exception to this rule. It was because of this virtuoso of the inner life that other members of the Socrates guild, such as Heidegger and Sartre, could begin to philosophize about angst. It is in our anxiety that we come to understand feelingly that we are free, that the possibilities are endless. Though he was a genius of the intellectual high wire, Kierkegaard was a philosopher who wrote from experience. And that experience included considerable acquaintance with the chronic, disquieting feeling that something not so good was about to happen. In one journal entry, he wrote, “All existence makes me anxious, from the smallest fly to the mysteries of the Incarnation; the whole thing is inexplicable, I most of all; to me all existence is infected, I most of all. My distress is enormous, boundless; no one knows it except God in heaven, and he will not console me….” Is there any doubt that were he alive today he would be supplied with a refillable prescription for Xanax? On virtually every third page of Kierkegaard’s authorship some note about angst is scrawled.
    [Show full text]