Kierkegaard and Modern Continental Philosophy: An Introduction
Michael Weston
This book will interest those who like Kierkegaard and wish to relate his work to that of more recent continental thinkers. Nevertheless, sensu strictu, it is unlikely that Kierkegaard - personally, would have approved of the kind of analyses which make this book 'tick.'
For the most part, Kierkegaard wrote pseudonymously - so as to avoid being identified with a fixed philosophical persona upon which readers might project themselves. By bringing Kierkegaard into dialogue with other thinkers, as a kind of philosophical entity in himself, Kierkegaard is no longer able to speak as he wished to be heard, through the stratagem of using diffused voices. Needless to say, this was the price which had to be paid - to write a study of this kind.
While handled sensitively, there are points where this book reads too much like a series of set lectures in philosophy, but that is hardly surprising, when the author is a lecturer in philosophy. Like Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard didn't have much time for university lecturers with their set pieces. That said, the author's endeavour to bounce Kierkegaardian ideas around in a kind of dialogue with later continental philosophers, has its merits. The inter-face between Kierkegaard and Heidegger struck me as the most problematic. It seems to have been written as if Heidegger's preoccupation with existential questions could be detached from his social philosophy (i.e. German National Socialism, with its anti-Christian stance). As a Christian, Kierkegaard would have seen Heidegger's (Nazi) social philosophy as a case of living in bad faith. Had the two philosophers met in actuality, it is unlikely that a dialogue would have followed. Heidegger turned his back on Platonism and revered Hegel. Keikegaard detested Hegel and made frequent references to Socrates and classicism. That way, they are like chalk and cheese, but you wouldn't guess that - reading this study. This book will suit people doing philosophy majors. If you want to savour Kierkegaard at his best, nothing less than the whole armoury of tricks will suffice.
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