Product Description

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55), one of the most original thinkers of the nineteenth century, wrote widely on religious, psychological, and literary themes. This book shows how Kierkegaard developed his views in emphatic opposition to prevailing opinions. It describes his reaction to the ethical and religious theories of Kant and Hegel, and it also contrasts his position with doctrines advanced by men like Feuerbach and Marx. Kierkegaard's seminal diagnosis of the human condition, which emphasizes the significance of individual choice, has arguably been his most striking philosophical legacy, particularly for the growth of existentialism. Both that and his arresting but paradoxical conception of religious belief are critically discussed, and Patrick Gardiner concludes this lucid introduction by showing how Kierkegaard has influenced contemporary thought.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89639 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

The Interuniversity Kierkegaard Research Group, Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie
"Gardiner's text continues to offer an excellent and beautifully written introduction."

Review
Gardiner's text continues to offer an excellent and beautifully written introduction. (The Interuniversity Kierkegaard Research Group, Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie )

About the Author
Patrick Gardiner was formerly an Emeritus Professor of Magdalen College, Oxford

Customer Reviews

excellent biographical, historical,philosphical synopsis
This is an excellent introduction not only to Kierkegaard, but to the subsequent existentialist movement, concurrent philosophies and progressive influences on Kierkegaard's thought. It convincingly argues the latter were a combination of biographical, psychological and political and philosophical reactionism. For anybody interested in how existentialism developed and was arguably later corrupted, this book provides an intelligent and clearly written account. Strongly recommended.

Danish Patsy


Soren Kierkegaard's philosophy was largely neglected during his lifetime (1813 -1855) partly because he wrote in Danish and partly because his ideas, which were spread across a variety of disciplines, did not find a philosophical home until the theory of existentialism became fashionable in the 1920's and 1930's.

Convinced his thinking would be universally accepted in the long term, Kierkegaard was highly critical of the society in which he lived, in particular of the role of the Lutheran Church and attempted to revitalise the Christian faith as he understood it. Later commentators have interpreted him, with varying degrees of accuracy and success, as individualist, post modernist and neo-othodoxist.

His "strange and complex disposition" was influenced by his father's dominant personality which demanded of his children "absolute obedience" in an atmosphere of "gloom and religious guilt", arising from his father's morbid belief the family would suffer divine retribution for past sins. Physically weak, Kierkegaard use the strength of his superior intelligence coupled with a "sharp and wounding tongue" to defeat his enemies. He likened himself to Janus, the two faced god, laughing with one and weeping with the other. In between he felt "profoundly dissatisfied with the emptiness of his existence".

Unlike his predecessors, Hume and Kant, Kierkegaard, was not concerned with speculation. Both had argued that reason alone could not be used to prove Christianity as such proof depended on the miraculous. Hegel had sought to reconcile religion and reason with his all-encompassing systematic approach to thought which Young Hegelians, such as David Strauss and Ludwig Feurbach, later radicalised to portray the God of religion as the internalisation of man's own nature in "imaginary and idealised form". Hegel's abstract allusions to the workings of absolute spirit personified in the State were transformed into practical humanistic atheism dedicated to overthrowing it.

Kierkegaard understood the implications of this train of thought. While he agreed that religious convictions were a matter of faith rather than knowledge, he argued that his contemporaries had forgotten how to exist as human beings rather than as objects within some philosophical or religious system. He wanted to show people how to become Christians in Christendom, to discover their own individual identities instead of being stereotyped members of "the crowd". To do this he attacked conventional values to force people to think for themselves.

He saw the Lutheran Church in Denmark, particularly the clergy, as profiteers from Christianity rather than professors of Christianity. His writings were designed to emphasise the reliance of each individual on God's grace for personal salvation. That meant the individual had a duty to God which is higher than his duty to society. Ethical behaviour was not a matter of abiding by social rules but by an individual's duty to God. In the case of Abraham and Isaac, for example, Abraham was prepared to follow a sense of duty to God at the expense of accepted modes of behaviour. Abraham had shown a "leap to faith" rather than fear of society.

Ultimately Kierkegaard regarded commitment to a Christian way of life as a matter for individual rather than group decision. Something "each person must freely undertake for himself without the possibility of objective justification". The first part encapsulates the evangelical tradition, the latter implies its rejection. For this reason some Christians see Kierkegaard as a bulwark against rationalism, others as placing Christianity as just one faith amongst many of equal validity.

Kierkegaard published different books under different names to provoke discussion as well as convey his ideas. It can argued that Kierkegaard's breadth of writing, which stretched across literature, religion and psychology, taken together with his idiosyncratic style of writing, has been a major factor in a misunderstanding of his ideas. Unfortunately, at times, his mode of thinking is obscure and, although Gardiner does a splendid job in expounding the essence of what Kierkegaard was about, it is clear why Kierkegaard found more favour in Continental philosophy than the Anglo-American tradition, notwithstanding the parallels of obscurity and absurdity he shares with Wittgenstein.

Gardiner has written extensively on Kierkegaard and his familiarity with his subject leads to assumptions about the likely reader which diminishes from the explanatory nature of the book. It needs be to read several times to be fully appreciated and still leaves an unfulfilled sense of knowledge without providing any overwhelming sense of desire to find it. More Danish Patsy than Danish Pastry.