Kierkegaard from the point of view of the political (original) (raw)
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Towards a Kierkegaardian Retreating of the Political
The first section of this paper argues that we can find in Kierkegaard an idea of equality, epitomized in the notion of "the neighbor" presented in Works of Love, which is highly relevant for, among other things, a critical engagement with today's "identity politics." The second section argues that Kierkegaard's idea of equality is a religious-existential task, but also a task concerning our relationship with other human beings. The third section demonstrates how this idea of equality is evinced in the notion of "the neighbor." The last section offers some reflections on how we might begin to rethink the political based on this idea of equality.
Volume 14: Kierkegaard's Influence on Social-Political Thought
2016
While scholars have long recognized Kierkegaard's important contributions to fields such as ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, philosophical psychology, and hermeneutics, it was usually thought that he had nothing meaningful to say about society or politics. Kierkegaard has been traditionally characterized as a Christian writer who placed supreme importance on the inward religious life of each individual believer. His radical view seemed to many to undermine any meaningful conception of the community, society or the state. In recent years, however, scholars have begun to correct this image of Kierkegaard as an apolitical thinker. The present volume attempts to document the use of Kierkegaard by later thinkers in the context of social-political thought. It shows how his ideas have been employed by very different kinds of writers and activists with very different political goals and agendas. Many of the articles show that, although Kierkegaard has been criticized for his reactionary views on some social and political questions, he has been appropriated as a source of insight and inspiration by a number of later thinkers with very progressive, indeed, visionary political views.
Kierkegaard and Political Community (short book)
Kierkegaard's own references to the political events, and conflicts, of his time are brief, but no less significant for their brevity. He lived through the one really successful transition to constitutionalism and representative government, amongst the many European revolutions of 1848. Kierkegaard was sensitive to this drama, and the underlying tension it exposed in modern politics: the tension between revolutionary idealism and mundane pragmatism, a tension which parallels his view of Christian life. He was critical of democracy as a political movement and as a social tendency towards equality, but much of his criticism is similar to that of those recognised as thinkers about liberal democracy, who wished to protect it against its own negative tendencies. Our understanding of thinkers like Tocqueville and Mill will be enriched by comparison with Kierkegaard, as will our understanding of Kierkegaard.
2015
Most people in the present are convinced that liberal capitalist democracy embodies the best socio-economic system and human political governance available. While this may be the case, for this socio-political system to function well there needs to exist a robust culture where certain values and normative concepts originate and are sustained. S. Kierkegaard helps us understand that human person‘s dignity is inalienable and indisputable, for in their necessary albeit often unrecognized relatedness to God, human selves have a transcendent source and eternal destiny. This article explores Kierkegaard‘s later work The Sickness unto Death (1849), arguing that his relational understanding of a human (authentic) self can serve as an antidote to the malign processes that threaten current liberal democracies. Kierkegaard‘s authentic individual, actualizing his potential in an intentional participation in voluntary associations, can help cultivate the kind of normative culture needed to susta...
Rethinking the Role of Kierkegaard's 'Authentic Individual' in Liberal Captialist Democracies Today
Most people in the present are convinced that liberal capitalist democracy embodies the best socio-economic system and human political governance available. While this may be the case, for this socio-political system to function well there needs to exist a robust culture where certain values and normative concepts originate and are sustained. S. Kierkegaard helps us understand that human person‘s dignity is inalienable and indisputable, for in their necessary albeit often unrecognized relatedness to God, human selves have a transcendent source and eternal destiny. This article explores Kierkegaard‘s later work The Sickness unto Death (1849), arguing that his relational understanding of a human (authentic) self can serve as an antidote to the malign processes that threaten current liberal democracies. Kierkegaard‘s authentic individual, actualizing his potential in an intentional participation in voluntary associations, can help cultivate the kind of normative culture needed to sustain a liberal capitalist democracy on its course between fascism and communism.
This paper explores Kierkegaard as a theorist of revolution. Two Ages (1846) ends with a manifesto for 'unrecognizable revolutionaries' to subvert the media public. Kierkegaard attacks an essential characteristic of the media public, leveling, which represents a distraction from passionate ethical subjectivity and a sedative for revolutionary political action. Social revolution, however, remains an eschatological hope. Nonetheless, Kierkegaard provides a critical theory to defend the individual subject from the modern age's hyperextension of rationalism. In many ways, Kierkegaard anticipates the pessimistic Frankfurt School critical theorists who, a century later, criticized the total reach of instrumental reason through the public sphere. Does this permit us to reread the outwardly conservative Dane in the tradition of critical theory? In what sense is revolution desirable for Kierkegaard? This essay explores what it means for Kierkegaard to call for a revolutionary response to the world in the mass media age.
KIERKEGAARD'S INDIRECT POLITICS: Interludes with Lukács, Schmitt, Benjamin and Adorno (2014)
2014
This book argues that a radical political gesture can be found in Søren Kierkegaard´s writings. The chapters navigate an interdisciplinary landscape by placing Kierkegaard´s passionate thought in conversation with the writings of Georg Lukács, Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. At the heart of the book's argument is the concept of “indirect politics,” which names a negative space between methods, concepts, and intellectual acts in the work of Kierkegaard, as well as marking the dynamic relations between Kierkegaard and the aforementioned thinkers. Kierkegaard's indirect politics is a set of masks that displaces identities from one field to the next: theology masks politics; law masks theology; political theory masks philosophy; and psychology masks literary approaches to truth. As reflected in Lukács, Schmitt, Benjamin, and Adorno, this book examines how Kierkegaard’s indirect politics sets into relief three significant motifs: intellectual non-conformism, indirect communication in and through ambiguous identities, and negative dialectics. Review from Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter Dec 2014 (p.21-24): http://wp.stolaf.edu/kierkegaard/files/2014/03/Kierkegaard-No-63.pdf Website: http://www.brill.com/products/book/kierkegaards-indirect-politics
Comparative and Continental Philosophy
A continuation of Das's deep engagement with political theology (that is, his political theology of Schelling [2016]), this text undertakes a deep and provocative reading of Kierkegaard's political theology that strikes to the depths of our ontology. Positioned versus Church and State, a refutation of Christendom and its continuations in secular modernity, Kierkegaard's political theology also exposes the limits and issues of Schmitt's project. Tracing the influence of Schelling's eschatological political theology upon Kierkegaard's thought, Das articulates a political theology "to come" that is based upon the scandalous event of the crucifixion and in turn creates the scandalous ontology of the event. The result is an ontology lived in response to a negative political theology in which we live without probability within the event of Kierkegaardian sovereign love.
Political Solipsism and Its Risks: Kierkegaard, a Case-Study
There are 3 basic forms, I argue, of political life. One is electing people for office (P1). The next is criticizing government policy and laws in the public sphere (P2). Last: Participating in the political process itself (P3). They all involve give and take between free and equal citizens-reciprocity. Anyone who rejects P1-P3, sees reciprocity as nonbasic or false, I'll call a political solipsist. Kierkegaard is the first thinker, I