Author: Marcia Morgan
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739167790
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 125
Book Description
Kierkegaard's impact on the development of critical theory has received scant study; it is the aim of the book to fill this scholarly lacuna. Kierkegaard and Critical Theory seeks to expose the complexity not only of Kierkegaard but of the Frankfurt School and their cohort, highlighting the ways in which the Danish religious thinker has been redeemed for a multiculture activist ethics in spirit with the fundamental aims of the Frankfurt School.
Kierkegaard and Critical Theory
Author: Marcia Morgan
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739167790
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 125
Book Description
Kierkegaard's impact on the development of critical theory has received scant study; it is the aim of the book to fill this scholarly lacuna. Kierkegaard and Critical Theory seeks to expose the complexity not only of Kierkegaard but of the Frankfurt School and their cohort, highlighting the ways in which the Danish religious thinker has been redeemed for a multiculture activist ethics in spirit with the fundamental aims of the Frankfurt School.
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739167790
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 125
Book Description
Kierkegaard's impact on the development of critical theory has received scant study; it is the aim of the book to fill this scholarly lacuna. Kierkegaard and Critical Theory seeks to expose the complexity not only of Kierkegaard but of the Frankfurt School and their cohort, highlighting the ways in which the Danish religious thinker has been redeemed for a multiculture activist ethics in spirit with the fundamental aims of the Frankfurt School.
The Highway of Despair
Author: Robyn Marasco
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231538898
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
Hegel's "highway of despair," introduced in his Phenomenology of Spirit, is the tortured path traveled by "natural consciousness" on its way to freedom. Despair, the passionate residue of Hegelian critique, also indicates fugitive opportunities for freedom and preserves the principle of hope against all hope. Analyzing the works of an eclectic cast of thinkers, Robyn Marasco considers the dynamism of despair as a critical passion, reckoning with the forms of historical life forged along Hegel's highway. The Highway of Despair follows Theodor Adorno, Georges Bataille, and Frantz Fanon as they each read, resist, and reconfigure a strand of thought in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Confronting the twentieth-century collapse of a certain revolutionary dialectic, these thinkers struggle to revalue critical philosophy and recast Left Hegelianism within the contexts of genocidal racism, world war, and colonial domination. Each thinker also re-centers the role of passion in critique. Arguing against more recent trends in critical theory that promise an escape from despair, Marasco shows how passion frustrates the resolutions of reason and faith. Embracing the extremism of what Marx, in the spirit of Hegel, called the "ruthless critique of everything existing," she affirms the contemporary purchase of radical critical theory, resulting in a passionate approach to political thought.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231538898
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
Hegel's "highway of despair," introduced in his Phenomenology of Spirit, is the tortured path traveled by "natural consciousness" on its way to freedom. Despair, the passionate residue of Hegelian critique, also indicates fugitive opportunities for freedom and preserves the principle of hope against all hope. Analyzing the works of an eclectic cast of thinkers, Robyn Marasco considers the dynamism of despair as a critical passion, reckoning with the forms of historical life forged along Hegel's highway. The Highway of Despair follows Theodor Adorno, Georges Bataille, and Frantz Fanon as they each read, resist, and reconfigure a strand of thought in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Confronting the twentieth-century collapse of a certain revolutionary dialectic, these thinkers struggle to revalue critical philosophy and recast Left Hegelianism within the contexts of genocidal racism, world war, and colonial domination. Each thinker also re-centers the role of passion in critique. Arguing against more recent trends in critical theory that promise an escape from despair, Marasco shows how passion frustrates the resolutions of reason and faith. Embracing the extremism of what Marx, in the spirit of Hegel, called the "ruthless critique of everything existing," she affirms the contemporary purchase of radical critical theory, resulting in a passionate approach to political thought.
Kierkegaard in Post/Modernity
Author: Martin Beck Matuštík
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253209672
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 328
Book Description
Covering a diversity of themes, this collection still reflects consensus--Kierkegaard is to be taken seriously as a philosopher at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253209672
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 328
Book Description
Covering a diversity of themes, this collection still reflects consensus--Kierkegaard is to be taken seriously as a philosopher at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Postnational Identity
Author: Martin Joseph Matuštík
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780898622706
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 329
Book Description
Contradictory interpretations have been applied to history-making events that led to the end of the cold war: Václav Havel, using Kierkegaardian terms, called the demise of totalitarianism in east-central Europe an "existential revolution"' (i.e. an awakening of human responsibility, spirit, and reason), while others hailed it as a victory for the "New World Order." Regardless of one's point of view, however, it is clear that the global landscape has been dramatically altered. Where once the competition between capitalism and communism provided a basis for establishing political- and self-identity, today, the destructive forces of nationalist identity and religious and secular fundamentalism are filling the void. In his timely and significant new work, Martin J. Matu¿tík synthesizes the critical social theory of J rgen Habermas with the existentialism of Havel and Søren Kierkegaard to present an alternative to the conceptualization of identity based on nationalism that is stoking the flames of civil wars in Europe and racial and ethnic tensions in eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the United States. In so doing, he reinvigorates critical social theory, and points the way toward a multicultural, post-national identity and a democracy capable of resisting both imperial consensus and xenophobic backlash. Offering the most extensive examination of Habermas's and Kierkegaard's critiques of nationalist identity available, Postnational Identity dramatically confronts the traditional view of existential philosophy as antisocial and uncritical. This volume shows how Kierkegaardian theory and practice of radically honest communication allows us to rethink the existential in terms of Habermas's communicative action, and vice versa. As the author explains the foundations of his work in the Preface: Critical theory and existential philosophy, brought together in this book, engender two forms of suspicion of the present age. The critical theorist, such as J rgen Habermas, unmasks the forms in which social and cultural life become systematically distorted by the imperatives of political power and economic gain. The existential critic, like Søren Kierkegaard and Václav Havel, is suspicious of the various ways in which individuals deceive themselves or other people. This study aims to integrate Kierkegaard's and Havel's existential critique of motives informing human identity formation with Habermas's critique of the colonialization of fragmented, anomic modern life by systems of power and money....My argument is that existential critique and social critique complement each other and overcome their respective limitations. Organized into three distinct sections, the book begins with a study of individual and group identity in Habermas's work on communicative ethics. This section draws on Habermas's readings of Kant, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Mead, and Durkheim. Part Two uses Kierkegaard's existential ethics to broaden Habermas's notion of identity. The argument proceeds from the performative character of existential individuality to Kierkegaard's theory and practice of communication, and, finally, to the regulative community ideal projected in his critique of the present age. In the book's final section, the author addresses the question of identity to the nationalist strife of the present age. Overall, the book sets forth the argument that a move from fundamentalist constructions of identity to postnational, open, and multicultural identity is a critical ideal on which both the existential and socio-political suspicion of the present age converge. Postnational Identity is addressed to the three multicultural audiences that gave it shape: western Europe, eastern Europe, and the United States. One of the first works to treat seriously the existential thought of Václav Havel, the book will hold enormous appeal for students and professionals involved in existential philosophy, critical theory, philosophy, and, more generally, political science, literary theory, communications, and cultural studies.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780898622706
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 329
Book Description
Contradictory interpretations have been applied to history-making events that led to the end of the cold war: Václav Havel, using Kierkegaardian terms, called the demise of totalitarianism in east-central Europe an "existential revolution"' (i.e. an awakening of human responsibility, spirit, and reason), while others hailed it as a victory for the "New World Order." Regardless of one's point of view, however, it is clear that the global landscape has been dramatically altered. Where once the competition between capitalism and communism provided a basis for establishing political- and self-identity, today, the destructive forces of nationalist identity and religious and secular fundamentalism are filling the void. In his timely and significant new work, Martin J. Matu¿tík synthesizes the critical social theory of J rgen Habermas with the existentialism of Havel and Søren Kierkegaard to present an alternative to the conceptualization of identity based on nationalism that is stoking the flames of civil wars in Europe and racial and ethnic tensions in eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the United States. In so doing, he reinvigorates critical social theory, and points the way toward a multicultural, post-national identity and a democracy capable of resisting both imperial consensus and xenophobic backlash. Offering the most extensive examination of Habermas's and Kierkegaard's critiques of nationalist identity available, Postnational Identity dramatically confronts the traditional view of existential philosophy as antisocial and uncritical. This volume shows how Kierkegaardian theory and practice of radically honest communication allows us to rethink the existential in terms of Habermas's communicative action, and vice versa. As the author explains the foundations of his work in the Preface: Critical theory and existential philosophy, brought together in this book, engender two forms of suspicion of the present age. The critical theorist, such as J rgen Habermas, unmasks the forms in which social and cultural life become systematically distorted by the imperatives of political power and economic gain. The existential critic, like Søren Kierkegaard and Václav Havel, is suspicious of the various ways in which individuals deceive themselves or other people. This study aims to integrate Kierkegaard's and Havel's existential critique of motives informing human identity formation with Habermas's critique of the colonialization of fragmented, anomic modern life by systems of power and money....My argument is that existential critique and social critique complement each other and overcome their respective limitations. Organized into three distinct sections, the book begins with a study of individual and group identity in Habermas's work on communicative ethics. This section draws on Habermas's readings of Kant, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Mead, and Durkheim. Part Two uses Kierkegaard's existential ethics to broaden Habermas's notion of identity. The argument proceeds from the performative character of existential individuality to Kierkegaard's theory and practice of communication, and, finally, to the regulative community ideal projected in his critique of the present age. In the book's final section, the author addresses the question of identity to the nationalist strife of the present age. Overall, the book sets forth the argument that a move from fundamentalist constructions of identity to postnational, open, and multicultural identity is a critical ideal on which both the existential and socio-political suspicion of the present age converge. Postnational Identity is addressed to the three multicultural audiences that gave it shape: western Europe, eastern Europe, and the United States. One of the first works to treat seriously the existential thought of Václav Havel, the book will hold enormous appeal for students and professionals involved in existential philosophy, critical theory, philosophy, and, more generally, political science, literary theory, communications, and cultural studies.
Critical Theory and Interaction Design
Author: Jeffrey Bardzell
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026203798X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 840
Book Description
Classic texts by thinkers from Althusser to Žižek alongside essays by leaders in interaction design and HCI show the relevance of critical theory to interaction design. Why should interaction designers read critical theory? Critical theory is proving unexpectedly relevant to media and technology studies. The editors of this volume argue that reading critical theory—understood in the broadest sense, including but not limited to the Frankfurt School—can help designers do what they want to do; can teach wisdom itself; can provoke; and can introduce new ways of seeing. They illustrate their argument by presenting classic texts by thinkers in critical theory from Althusser to Žižek alongside essays in which leaders in interaction design and HCI describe the influence of the text on their work. For example, one contributor considers the relevance Umberto Eco's “Openness, Information, Communication” to digital content; another reads Walter Benjamin's “The Author as Producer” in terms of interface designers; and another reflects on the implications of Judith Butler's Gender Trouble for interaction design. The editors offer a substantive introduction that traces the various strands of critical theory. Taken together, the essays show how critical theory and interaction design can inform each other, and how interaction design, drawing on critical theory, might contribute to our deepest needs for connection, competency, self-esteem, and wellbeing. Contributors Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, Olav W. Bertelsen, Alan F. Blackwell, Mark Blythe, Kirsten Boehner, John Bowers, Gilbert Cockton, Carl DiSalvo, Paul Dourish, Melanie Feinberg, Beki Grinter, Hrönn Brynjarsdóttir Holmer, Jofish Kaye, Ann Light, John McCarthy, Søren Bro Pold, Phoebe Sengers, Erik Stolterman, Kaiton Williams., Peter Wright Classic texts Louis Althusser, Aristotle, Roland Barthes, Seyla Benhabib, Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Arthur Danto, Terry Eagleton, Umberto Eco, Michel Foucault, Wolfgang Iser, Alan Kaprow, Søren Kierkegaard, Bruno Latour, Herbert Marcuse, Edward Said, James C. Scott, Slavoj Žižek
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026203798X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 840
Book Description
Classic texts by thinkers from Althusser to Žižek alongside essays by leaders in interaction design and HCI show the relevance of critical theory to interaction design. Why should interaction designers read critical theory? Critical theory is proving unexpectedly relevant to media and technology studies. The editors of this volume argue that reading critical theory—understood in the broadest sense, including but not limited to the Frankfurt School—can help designers do what they want to do; can teach wisdom itself; can provoke; and can introduce new ways of seeing. They illustrate their argument by presenting classic texts by thinkers in critical theory from Althusser to Žižek alongside essays in which leaders in interaction design and HCI describe the influence of the text on their work. For example, one contributor considers the relevance Umberto Eco's “Openness, Information, Communication” to digital content; another reads Walter Benjamin's “The Author as Producer” in terms of interface designers; and another reflects on the implications of Judith Butler's Gender Trouble for interaction design. The editors offer a substantive introduction that traces the various strands of critical theory. Taken together, the essays show how critical theory and interaction design can inform each other, and how interaction design, drawing on critical theory, might contribute to our deepest needs for connection, competency, self-esteem, and wellbeing. Contributors Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, Olav W. Bertelsen, Alan F. Blackwell, Mark Blythe, Kirsten Boehner, John Bowers, Gilbert Cockton, Carl DiSalvo, Paul Dourish, Melanie Feinberg, Beki Grinter, Hrönn Brynjarsdóttir Holmer, Jofish Kaye, Ann Light, John McCarthy, Søren Bro Pold, Phoebe Sengers, Erik Stolterman, Kaiton Williams., Peter Wright Classic texts Louis Althusser, Aristotle, Roland Barthes, Seyla Benhabib, Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Arthur Danto, Terry Eagleton, Umberto Eco, Michel Foucault, Wolfgang Iser, Alan Kaprow, Søren Kierkegaard, Bruno Latour, Herbert Marcuse, Edward Said, James C. Scott, Slavoj Žižek
Kierkegaard's God and the Good Life
Author: Stephen Minister
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253029481
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
Collected critical essays analyzing Kierkegaard’s work in regards to theology and social-moral thought. Kierkegaard’s God and the Good Life focuses on faith and love, two central topics in Kierkegaard’s writings, to grapple with complex questions at the intersection of religion and ethics. Here, leading scholars reflect on Kierkegaard’s understanding of God, the religious life, and what it means to exist ethically. The contributors then shift to psychology, hope, knowledge, and the emotions as they offer critical and constructive readings for contemporary philosophical debates in the philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, and epistemology. Together, they show how Kierkegaard continues to be an important resource for understandings of religious existence, public discourse, social life, and how to live virtuously. “All in all, the editors of this volume have put together a thoughtful and sometimes provocative collection of essays by a number of Kierkegaard scholars and philosophers for the reader’s consideration. . . . The volume undoubtedly makes a contribution to contemporary philosophical debates in the philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, and epistemology, especially with regard to the importance of faith and love for leading a good and meaningful human life.” —International Journal for Philosophy of Religion “Invites the reader to think anew about what Kierkegaard was saying and what we can learn from him in the context of our time, particularly what it means to become a Christian in terms of the moral task of love and living a life worthy of a human being.” —Sylvia Walsh, translator of Kierkegaard’s Discourses at the Communion on Fridays
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253029481
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
Collected critical essays analyzing Kierkegaard’s work in regards to theology and social-moral thought. Kierkegaard’s God and the Good Life focuses on faith and love, two central topics in Kierkegaard’s writings, to grapple with complex questions at the intersection of religion and ethics. Here, leading scholars reflect on Kierkegaard’s understanding of God, the religious life, and what it means to exist ethically. The contributors then shift to psychology, hope, knowledge, and the emotions as they offer critical and constructive readings for contemporary philosophical debates in the philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, and epistemology. Together, they show how Kierkegaard continues to be an important resource for understandings of religious existence, public discourse, social life, and how to live virtuously. “All in all, the editors of this volume have put together a thoughtful and sometimes provocative collection of essays by a number of Kierkegaard scholars and philosophers for the reader’s consideration. . . . The volume undoubtedly makes a contribution to contemporary philosophical debates in the philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, and epistemology, especially with regard to the importance of faith and love for leading a good and meaningful human life.” —International Journal for Philosophy of Religion “Invites the reader to think anew about what Kierkegaard was saying and what we can learn from him in the context of our time, particularly what it means to become a Christian in terms of the moral task of love and living a life worthy of a human being.” —Sylvia Walsh, translator of Kierkegaard’s Discourses at the Communion on Fridays
Kierkegaard's Relations to Hegel Reconsidered
Author: Jon Stewart
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521039512
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 724
Book Description
A major re-evaluation of the complex relations between the philosophies of Kierkegaard and Hegel.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521039512
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 724
Book Description
A major re-evaluation of the complex relations between the philosophies of Kierkegaard and Hegel.
Immediacy and Reflection in Kierkegaard's Thought
Author: Paul Cruysberghs
Publisher: Leuven University Press
ISBN: 9789058673114
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
"We live in a reflective age." That is Soren Kierkegaard's overall conclusion when evaluating the time he lives in. But his appraisal contains both approval and criticism. On the one hand reflection is a necessary category to deal with the dynamics and the qualities of the modern age, on the other hand it bears a great danger. It is Kierkegaard's firm conviction that reflection should always relate to a kind of immediacy that safeguards it from becoming hollow and detached from our existential reality. Throughout the voluminous and complex work of Kierkegaard, the notions of 'immediacy' and 'reflection' play a crucial role. They appear in such an early work as From the Papers of One Still Living as well as in the late Anti-Climacus writings, and indeed their significance or influence can be felt in all philosophical texts published in between. That is not to say that the meaning of the notions is unequivocal. After all, Kierkegaard not only uses the terms in very divergent contexts, but his own understanding of them appears to evolve quite strongly in the course of his oeuvre. Moreover, in spite of their clearly philosophical character, the two notions play an unmistakable role in Kierkegaard's understanding of religion. They appear frequently in the religious discourses indeed. In short, Kierkegaard's use of the notions of 'immediacy' and 'reflection' covers a broad array of meanings and interpretations. The dialectics of immediacy and reflection, of reflection killing immediacy and raising the question of the possibility of a new immediacy is the main theme of Immediacy and Reflection in Kierkegaard's Thought. The book contains contributions authored by a number of well known Kierkegaard scholars. Kierkegaard's theory of the 'existence spheres of life' provides a first viewpoint on the interplay of immediacy and reflection. Here the philosophical and pseudonymous writings are the main subject of research. If on the other hand one pays a closer look at the significance of a 'second immediacy' for a religious attitude to life, The religious discourses come into play when the possibility of a 'second immediacy' is taken into consideration. In conclusion the theme of immediacy and reflection is connected to some important trends in the modern and contemporary era. On the one hand it is linked to the philosophical influences Kierkegaard underwent (e.g. from Hegel); on the other hand Kierkegaard is confronted with later thinkers (Heidegger in particular).
Publisher: Leuven University Press
ISBN: 9789058673114
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
"We live in a reflective age." That is Soren Kierkegaard's overall conclusion when evaluating the time he lives in. But his appraisal contains both approval and criticism. On the one hand reflection is a necessary category to deal with the dynamics and the qualities of the modern age, on the other hand it bears a great danger. It is Kierkegaard's firm conviction that reflection should always relate to a kind of immediacy that safeguards it from becoming hollow and detached from our existential reality. Throughout the voluminous and complex work of Kierkegaard, the notions of 'immediacy' and 'reflection' play a crucial role. They appear in such an early work as From the Papers of One Still Living as well as in the late Anti-Climacus writings, and indeed their significance or influence can be felt in all philosophical texts published in between. That is not to say that the meaning of the notions is unequivocal. After all, Kierkegaard not only uses the terms in very divergent contexts, but his own understanding of them appears to evolve quite strongly in the course of his oeuvre. Moreover, in spite of their clearly philosophical character, the two notions play an unmistakable role in Kierkegaard's understanding of religion. They appear frequently in the religious discourses indeed. In short, Kierkegaard's use of the notions of 'immediacy' and 'reflection' covers a broad array of meanings and interpretations. The dialectics of immediacy and reflection, of reflection killing immediacy and raising the question of the possibility of a new immediacy is the main theme of Immediacy and Reflection in Kierkegaard's Thought. The book contains contributions authored by a number of well known Kierkegaard scholars. Kierkegaard's theory of the 'existence spheres of life' provides a first viewpoint on the interplay of immediacy and reflection. Here the philosophical and pseudonymous writings are the main subject of research. If on the other hand one pays a closer look at the significance of a 'second immediacy' for a religious attitude to life, The religious discourses come into play when the possibility of a 'second immediacy' is taken into consideration. In conclusion the theme of immediacy and reflection is connected to some important trends in the modern and contemporary era. On the one hand it is linked to the philosophical influences Kierkegaard underwent (e.g. from Hegel); on the other hand Kierkegaard is confronted with later thinkers (Heidegger in particular).
Understanding Moral Obligation
Author: Robert Stern
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139505017
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
In many histories of modern ethics, Kant is supposed to have ushered in an anti-realist or constructivist turn by holding that unless we ourselves 'author' or lay down moral norms and values for ourselves, our autonomy as agents will be threatened. In this book, Robert Stern challenges the cogency of this 'argument from autonomy', and claims that Kant never subscribed to it. Rather, it is not value realism but the apparent obligatoriness of morality that really poses a challenge to our autonomy: how can this be accounted for without taking away our freedom? The debate the book focuses on therefore concerns whether this obligatoriness should be located in ourselves (Kant), in others (Hegel) or in God (Kierkegaard). Stern traces the historical dialectic that drove the development of these respective theories, and clearly and sympathetically considers their merits and disadvantages; he concludes by arguing that the choice between them remains open.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139505017
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
In many histories of modern ethics, Kant is supposed to have ushered in an anti-realist or constructivist turn by holding that unless we ourselves 'author' or lay down moral norms and values for ourselves, our autonomy as agents will be threatened. In this book, Robert Stern challenges the cogency of this 'argument from autonomy', and claims that Kant never subscribed to it. Rather, it is not value realism but the apparent obligatoriness of morality that really poses a challenge to our autonomy: how can this be accounted for without taking away our freedom? The debate the book focuses on therefore concerns whether this obligatoriness should be located in ourselves (Kant), in others (Hegel) or in God (Kierkegaard). Stern traces the historical dialectic that drove the development of these respective theories, and clearly and sympathetically considers their merits and disadvantages; he concludes by arguing that the choice between them remains open.
An Analysis of Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling
Author: Brittany Pheiffer Noble
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351350455
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 98
Book Description
Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s 1843 book Fear and Trembling shows precisely why he is regarded as one of the most significant and creative philosophers of the nineteenth century. Creative thinkers can be many things, but one of their common attributes is an ability to redefine, reframe and reconsider problems from novel angles. In Kierkegaard’s case, he chose to approach the problems of faith and ethics in a deliberately artful and non-systematic way. Writing under the pseudonym “John the Silent,” he declared that he was “nothing of a philosopher,” but an “amateur,” wanting to write poetically and elegantly about the things that fascinated him. While Fear and Trembling is very much the work of a philosopher, Kierkegaard’s protests showed his intent to take a different path, approaching his topic like no one else before him. The book goes on to ask what the real nature of our personal relationship with God might be, and how faith might interact with ethics. What, Kierkegaard asks, can we make of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and of Abraham obeying? Arguing the unorthodox position that in following God’s incomprehensible will Abraham had acted ethically, Kierkegaard set out the parameters of a moral argument that remains strikingly novel over a 150 years later.
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351350455
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 98
Book Description
Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s 1843 book Fear and Trembling shows precisely why he is regarded as one of the most significant and creative philosophers of the nineteenth century. Creative thinkers can be many things, but one of their common attributes is an ability to redefine, reframe and reconsider problems from novel angles. In Kierkegaard’s case, he chose to approach the problems of faith and ethics in a deliberately artful and non-systematic way. Writing under the pseudonym “John the Silent,” he declared that he was “nothing of a philosopher,” but an “amateur,” wanting to write poetically and elegantly about the things that fascinated him. While Fear and Trembling is very much the work of a philosopher, Kierkegaard’s protests showed his intent to take a different path, approaching his topic like no one else before him. The book goes on to ask what the real nature of our personal relationship with God might be, and how faith might interact with ethics. What, Kierkegaard asks, can we make of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and of Abraham obeying? Arguing the unorthodox position that in following God’s incomprehensible will Abraham had acted ethically, Kierkegaard set out the parameters of a moral argument that remains strikingly novel over a 150 years later.