Kierkegaard and Philosophy: Selected Essays
Page 41
2 Ingmar Pörn, 'On the Dialectic of the Soul: An Essay on Kierkegaard', in Ingmar Pörn (ed.), Essays in Philosophical Analysis Dedicated to Erik Stenius on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, Acta Philosophica Fennica, 32, 1981, pp. 198–210.
3 Ibid., pp. 199–200.
4 References (in the text here and henceforth to Sickness) are to Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1989. The translation is based on the text of Sygdommen til døden in Samlede Værker, ed. by A. B. Drachmann, J. L. Heiberg and H. O. Lange, 5th rev. edn of 3rd edn, 20 vols, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1962 (SV3), vol. 15.
5 Pörn, 'On the Dialectic', pp. 203 and 204.
6 Kierkegaard's own familiarity with the concept and its background can be confirmed by the notes he made and borrowed on Hans Lassen Martensen's lectures on 'The History of Philosophy from Kant to Hegel' (Søren Kierkegaards Papirer [Papirer], ed. by P. A. Heiberg, V. Kuhr and E. Torsting, 16 vols in 25 tomes, 2nd edn, ed. by N. Thulstrup, with an Index by N. J. Cappelørn, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1968–78, 12, 1969, II C 25, pp. 280–331), and on 'Speculative Dogmatics' (Papirer 13, 1970, II C 26–8, pp. 3–116).
7 A useful source in English for variations on these Hegelian themes is Lawrence S. Stepelevich (ed.), The Young Hegelians: An Anthology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
8 See Søren Kierkegaard, Guds Uforanderlighed: En Tale, SV3 19, pp. 249–66. Also Montréal: Inter Editions, 1981, Facsimile.
9 See Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985, p. 72.
10 Søren Kierkegaard, Christian Discourses, trans. (intro. and notes) by Walter Lowrie, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1940, p. 146.
11 Søren Kierkegaard, A Literary Review, trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001, p. 99.
12 Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life, trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992, p. 513.
15 Two ways of coming back to reality: Kierkegaard and Lukács
1 Georg. Lukács, Existentialisme ou marxisme?, Paris: Nagel, 1948, p. 84.
2 Georg Lukács, Soul and Form, trans. by Anna Bostock, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974.
3 Georg Lukács, The Destruction of Reason, trans. by Peter Palmer, Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1981, p. 296.
4 Soul and Form, p. 24.
5 Georg Lukács, Theory of the Novel, trans. by Anna Bostock, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971.
6 Soul and Form, p. 41.
7 Ibid., p. 40.
8 Ibid., p. 40.
9 Ibid., pp. 40–1.
10 See Ch. 1 above.
11 Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness, trans. by Rodney Livingstone, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971.
12 Wolf Lepenies, Melancholy and Society, trans. by Jeremy Gaines and Doris Jones. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992, p. 153.
13 Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory, Boston: Beacon Press, 1941; 1960 edn, p. 264.
14 Stephen Spender, 'With Lukács in Budapest', Encounter, December 1964, p. 55.
16 Nietzsche/Kierkegaard: prospects for dialogue?
My thanks to Dan Conway and Ed Mooney, fellow participants in an American Philosophical Association symposium (Pacific Division, Berkeley, California, 28 March 1997) my contribution ('Kierkegaard and Nietzsche in Dialogue: Who Gets What?') to which formed the beginnings of this paper, for setting many of its thoughts in motion.
1 Søren Kierkegaards Papirer (Papirer), ed. by P. A. Heiberg, V. Kuhr and E. Torsting, 16 vols in 25 tomes, 2nd edn, ed. by N. Thulstrup, with an Index by N. J. Cappelørn, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1968–78, VIII 2 B 104.
2 Karl Jaspers, Man in the Modern Age, trans. by Eden and Cedar Paul, London: Routledge, 1951, p. 17; cf. pp. 20–1, 141, 152–3, 160, 177 (emphasis added).
3 For the record, Kierkegaard was born the same year as Nietzsche's father.
4 See Daniel W. Conway, Nietzsche and the Political, London and New York: Routledge, 1997, p. 50, which refers to the 'experimental nature' of Nietzsche's own life and work.
5 In both Nietzsche and Kierkegaard there is a tendency to proclaim possibilities which are simply the diametrical opposite of those they are trying to write out of culture. In talking of a need for 'a critique of moral values', and of the need for this of 'a knowledge of the conditions and circumstances in which they … evolved and changed', Nietzsche writes: 'One has hitherto never doubted … "the good man" to be of greater value than "the evil man". … But what if the reverse were true? … So that … morality was the danger of dangers?' Similarly in the case of what Kierkegaard attributes to 'spirit'. In his case this may be due to comparative proximity to Hegel. The displacement in time, the 'few decades' Jaspers mentions, may have made Kierkegaard far more of an Hegelian, and in that sense (though not others) a conservative, than Nietzsche.
6 Conway, Nietzsche and the Political, pp. 6 and 2.
7 Papirer V B 47:13, in connection with The Concept of Dread/Anxiety.
8 Ferdinand Brunetière, 'Après le procès', Revue des deux mondes, 15 March 1898. The procès was the Dreyfus trial and the article became famous through Durkheim's response, 'L'Individualisme et les intellectuels'.
9 Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, trans. by F. Lawrence, Cambridge: Polity, 1987, pp. 102–3.
10 Ibid., p. 96.
11 Jürgen Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, II: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason, trans. by T. McCarthy, Boston: Beacon Press, 1987.
12 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. by W. Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale, New York: Vintage, 1968, p. 493.
13 Willard Van O. Quine, Quiddities: An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987, pp. 132–3.
14 See Gilles Deleuze, 'Active and Reactive', in D. B. Allison (ed.), The New Nietzsche: Contemporary Styles of Interpretation, New York: Delta, 1977, pp. 81–2.
15 Cf. Willard Van O. Quine's appositely titled paper, 'Naturalism or Living Within One's Means', given at the conference 'Transcendentalism or Naturalism', Universität Tobler, Bern, 14–16 November, 1993.
16 Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, trans. by R. J. Hollingdale, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 135. Nietzsche says we should not underestimate 'the value of having been religious'.
17 Friedrich Nietzsche, Historisch-Kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke unde Briefe, ed. by W. Hoppe, K. Schlechta, H. J. Mette and C. Koch, Munich: Beck, 1933–42, vol. XII, p. 410.
18 Søren Kierkegaard, Samlede Værker, ed. by A. B. Drachmann, J. L. Heiberg and H. O. Lange, 5th rev. edn of 3rd edn, 20 vols, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1962, vol. 12. p. 312.
19 Human, All Too Human, p. 321.
20 See, with reference also to Rousseau, Ch. 11 in the present volume.
21 See Ch. 11 above in this volume.
22 Ecce Homo, trans. by W. Kaufmann, New York: Random House/Vintage Books, 1989, II:3. Quoted in Conway, Nietzsche and the Political, p. 60.
23 Nietzsche says: what we have
in the case of Kant [is] the biography of a head, in the case of Schopenhauer the description and mirroring of a character ('that which is unalterable') and pleasure in the mirror itself, that is to say in an excellent intellect. When he does shine through his thoughts, Kant appears honest and honourable in the best sense, but insignificant: he lacks breadth and power, he has not experienced very much, and his manner of working deprives him of the time in which to experience things. Schopenhauer has one advantage over him: he at least possesses a certain vehement ugliness in hatred, desire, vanity, mistrust; his disposition is somewhat more ferocious and he had time and leisure for this ferocity. But he lacked 'development': just as development is lacking in the domain of his ideas; he had no 'history'.
(Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality, trans. by R. J. Hollingdale, Cambridge: Cambridge Unive
rsity Press, p. 198 [original emphasis]
These two 'unhistorical' thinkers are contrasted with Plato, Spinoza, Pascal, Rousseau, Goethe (ibid.). Kierkegaard and Sartre would surely have earned a mention here.
17 Decisively disconnected
1 Søren Kierkegaards Papirer (Papirer), ed. by P. A. Heiberg, V. Kuhr and E. Torsting, 16 vols in 25 tomes, 2nd edn, ed. by N. Thulstrup, with an Index by N. J. Cappelørn, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1968–78, VIII 2 B 83 and B 89.
2 .In respect of Kunnens Meddelelse (imparting practical knowledge) Kierkegaard distinguishes between ethical knowledge, in imparting which the imparter as it were steps aside, and religious knowledge to impart, which implies authority and thus reintroduces an 'object' of 'knowledge'. I owe this observation to Poul Lübcke.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kierkegaard's works and writings in Danish
Samlede Værker, ed. A. B. Drachmann, J. L. Heiberg and H. O. Lange, 5th rev. edn of 3rd edn, 20 vols, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1962.
Søren Kierkegaards Papirer, ed. by P. A. Heiberg, V. Kuhr and E. Torsting, 16 vols. in 25 tomes, 2nd edn, ed. by N. Thulstrup, with an Index by N. J. Cappelørn, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1968–78.
Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, ed. by N. J. Cappelørn, J. Garff, J. Kondrup, A. McKinnon and F. H. Mortensen, 4th edn, Copenhagen: Gads Forlag for the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, 1997–.
Synspunktet for min Forfatter-Virksomhed: En ligefrem Meddelelse, Rapport til historien, Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels Forlag, 1859.
English translations
Where possible or appropriate the following translations in the Penguin Classics series have been used:
Either/Or: A Fragment of Life (lightly abridged), trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.
Fear and Trembling, trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985.
A Literary Review, trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001.
Papers and Journals: A Selection, trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1996.
The Sickness unto Death, trans. by Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1989.
Where appropriate the following translations have been used or cited:
Kierkegaard's Writings, ed. and trans. by Howard V. Hong, Edna H. Hong, Henrik Rosenmeier, Reidar Thomte, et al., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978–.
Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers, 7 vols., ed. and trans. by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, assisted by Gregor Malantschuk, Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1967–78.
Other translations used are:
Christian Discourses, trans. (intro. and notes) by Walter Lowrie, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1940.
The Concept of Dread, Vigilius Haufniensis, trans. by Walter Lowrie. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957.
Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Johannes Climacus, trans. by David F. Swenson and Walter Lowrie, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1941.
Philosophical Fragments, Johannes Climacus, trans. by David F. Swenson and Howard V. Hong, with Intro. and Commentary by Niels Thulstrup (trans. by Hong), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962.
Purify Your Hearts: A Discourse for a Special Occasion, trans. by A. S. Aldworth and W. S. Ferrie, London: The C. W. Daniel Company Ltd, 1937; also translated as Purity of
Heart is to Will One Thing: Spiritual Preparation for the Office of Confession, trans. with introd. essay by Douglas V. Steere, New York: Harper Torchbooks, Harper and Brothers, 2nd edn, 1958.
Selected books (not all cited) on or in connection with Kierkegaard
Adorno, Theodor W., Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic, ed. and trans. by Robert Hullot-Kentor, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989.
——Notes on Literature, vols 1–2, ed. by R. Tiedemann, trans. by Shierry Weber, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
Agacinski, Sylviane, Aparte: Conceptions and Deaths of Søren Kierkegaard, trans. by Kevin Newmark, Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University Press, 1988.
Ansell-Pearson, Keith, Nietzsche contra Rousseau, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Aquinas, St Thomas, Summa Theologiæ, vol. 21, Fear and Anger, Latin text, English trans. (intro., notes, appendices and glossary) by John Patrick Reid O.P., London: Eyre and Spottiswoode/New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.
——Truth, trans. (from the definitive Leonine text) by Robert W. Schmidt, S.J., vol. III, Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1954.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, from A New Aristotle Reader, ed. by J. L. Ackrill. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987, and The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. by H. Rackham, London: W. Heinemann/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968.
Ayer, Alfred J., The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge, London: Macmillan, 1940.
Beabout, Gregory R., Freedom and Its Misuses: Kierkegaard on Anxiety and Despair, Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1996.
Beiser, Frederick C., The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Bell, Richard H. (ed.), The Grammar of the Heart: Thinking with Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein. New Essays in Moral Philosophy and Theology, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988. Bernstein, Richard J., Praxis and Action:Contemporary Philosophies of Human Activity, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971.
Collins, James, The Mind of Kierkegaard, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Come, Arnold B., Trendelenberg's Influence on Kierkegaard's Modal Categories, Montreal: Inter Editions, 1991.
Conway, Daniel W., Nietzsche and the Political, London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
——Søren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, 4 vols, London: Routledge, 2002.
Davenport, John J. and Anthony Rudd (eds), Kierkegaard after MacIntyre: Essays on Freedom, Narrative, and Virtue, Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court, 2001.
Derrida, Jacques, The Gift of Death, trans. by David Wills, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Dunning, Stephen N., Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Inwardness: A Structural Analysis of the Theory of Stages, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Elrod, John W., Being and Existence in Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Works, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.
Evans, C. Stephen, Kierkegaard's 'Fragments' and 'Postscript': The Religious Philosophy of Johannes Climacus, Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1983.
——Passionate Reason: Making Sense of Kierkegaard's 'Philosophical Fragments', Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992.
Fenger, Henning, Kierkegaard: The Myths and Their Origins, trans. by George C. Schoolfield, New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 1980.
Fenves, Peter, Chatter: Language and History in Kierkegaard, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993.
Ferguson, Harvie, Melancholy and the Critique of Modernity: Søren Kierkegaard's Religious Psychology, London and New York: Routledge, 1995.
Ferreira, M. Jamie, Transforming Vision: Imagination and Will in Kierkegaardian Faith, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Feuerbach, L. A., Ludwig Feuerbachs Sämtliche Werke, ed. by Wilhelm Bolin and Friedrich Jodls, 10 vols, Stuttgart, 1903–10, vol. 2.
Frege, Gottlob, Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege, ed. and trans. by P. Geach and M. Black, Oxford: Blackwell, 1952.
Gardiner, Patrick, Kierkegaard, Oxford Past Masters, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Gilson, Étienne, Le Thomisme: Introduction à la philosophie de Saint Thomas D'Aquin, Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1947; The Christian Philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas, trans. by L. K. Shook, C.S.B., London: Gollancz, 1957.
——The Unity of Philosophical Experience, William James Lectures 1936, New York: Scribners, 1965.
Gouwens, David J., Kierkegaard as a Religious Thinker, Cambridge: Cambri
dge University Press, 1996.
Green, Ronald M., Kierkegaard and Kant: The Hidden Debt, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992.
Habermas, Jürgen. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, trans. by F. Lawrence, Cambridge: Polity, 1987.
——The Theory of Communicative Action, II: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason, trans. by T. McCarthy, Boston: Beacon Press, 1987.
Hamann, Johann Georg, Sämtliche Werke, Historisch-kritische Ausgabe, ed. by J. Nadler, Vienna: Herder, 1949–57.
Hannay, Alastair, Kierkegaard, The Arguments of the Philosophers, ed. by Ted Honderich, London and New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982; rev. edn, 1991 (new edn, 1999).