Remembering Soren Kierkegaard Today

With the remembrance of Armistice Day, coincides the anniversary of Søren Aabye Kierkegaard's death on November 11, 1855.

Today, we feature our catalog of books about one of the most influential thinkers in theology and Continental philosophy. I am sure that many of our readers are indebted to him in some way, shape or form. Perhaps, it wouldn't be out of place to read a few passages of Fear and Trembling or The Concept of Anxiety in the course of the day...

Diary of a Seducer, translated by Gerd Gilhoff         $13.95/£10.99

From Either/Or, this famous work records Johannes’s discovery of a girl with the Shakespearean name Cordelia, whom he sets out to control. Intricately, meticulously, cunningly, the seduction proceeds. No detail is too small to escape Johannes. Less erotic than an intellectual depiction of seduction, Diary of a Seducer shows the casuist Kierkegaard in what he characterized as the aesthetic mode. A new introduction by Michael Dirda puts this influential novella into high relief.

Kierkegaard: A Guide For the Perplexed By Clare Carlisle       $19.95/£12.99

This work offers a cogent, comprehensive and authoritative account of Kierkegaard's philosophy, ideal for students and readers coming to his work for the first time and who want to reach a full and detailed understanding of this major thinker and writer. The book explores the relationship - particularly important in Kierkegaard's case - between his life and work. It covers the literary and philosophical challenges raised by Kierkegaard's 'direct' and 'indirect' forms of communication; considers Kierkegaard's important critique of Hegel; opens up his ideas on subjectivity and truth; and provides illuminating commentaries on both Fear and Trembling and Philosophical Fragments. Valuably, the guide shows how Kierkegaard's philosophical, religious, social, literary and personal concerns are integrated and unified in his works. It also assesses his influence on later philosophers, including Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Sartre.

Kierkegaard on Ethics and Religion: From Either/Or to Philosophical Fragments by W. Glenn Kirkconnell    $130/£65

Søren Kierkegaard is simultaneously one of the most obscure philosophers of the Western world and one of the most influential. His writings have influenced atheists and faithful alike. Yet there is still widespread disagreement on many of the most important aspects of his thought. Kierkegaard was deliberately obscure in his writings, forcing the reader to interpret and reflect as Socrates did with incessant questioning. But at the same time that Kierkegaard was producing his esoteric, pseudonymous philosophical writings, he was also producing simpler, direct religious writings. Kierkegaard always claimed that he was, despite appearances, a religious writer. This important book accepts that claim and tests it. By using Kierkegaard’s direct writings as he suggests, as the key to understanding the more obscure, indirect works, W. Glenn Kirkconnell aims to develop a coherent understanding of Kierkegaard’s authorship and his theories.

Kierkegaard's Analysis of Radical Evil by David A. Roberts   $156/£70

For thousands of years philosophers and theologians have grappled with the problem of evil. Traditionally, evil has been seen as a weakness of sorts: the evil person is either ignorant (does not know the wrong being done), or weak-willed (is incapable of doing the right thing). There has never been a better time to re-open this most difficult of questions, and to inquire whether any helpful resources exist within our intellectual legacy.

 

David Roberts has done just this. In taking up the problem of evil as it is uniquely found in the work of the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, Roberts has uncovered a framework that at last allows the notion of radical evil to be properly articulated. His book traces the sources of Kierkegaard's conception from its background in the work of Kant and Schelling, and painstakingly details the matrix of issues that evolved into Kierkegaard's own solution. Kierkegaard's psychological understanding of evil is that it arises out of despair - a despair that can become so vehement and ferocious that it lashes out at existence itself. Starting from this recognition, and drawing on Kierkegaard's view of the self, Roberts shows how the despairing self can become strengthened and intensified through a conscious and free choice against the Good. This type of radical evil is neither ignorant nor weak.