Studies in the Philosophy of Kierkegaard
In this volume, I have given attention to what I consider to be some of the central problems and topics in the philosophical thought of SjiSren Kierkegaard. Some of the chapters have been previously publish ed but were revised for their appearance here.
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STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF KIERKEGAARD by E. D. KLEMKE
11 Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. - 1976
To A. J. Shakeshaft
© 1976 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands, in 1976 All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form ISBN 978-94-017-4589-5 DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-4782-0
ISBN 978-94-017-4782-0 (eBook)
PREFACE
In this volume, I have given attention to what I consider to be some of the central problems and topics in the philosophical thought of SjiSren Kierkegaard. Some of the chapters have been previously published but were revised for their appearance here. Others were written expressly for this book. I have tried to focus on issues which have not been customarily dealt with or emphasized in the scholarship on Kierkegaard with the exception of the writings of David Swenson and Paul L. Holmer to which (and to whom) I am greatly indebted. Some of the positions for which I have argued in this volume (especially in Chapters IV and V) may be controversial. I am grateful to all those who enabled me to carry out or influenced me in my studies of Kierkegaard or who assisted with regard to the research for or preparation of this volume. Among these are: Professors Paul L. Holmer, F. Arthur Jacobson, and Dennis A. Rohatyn; Dean Wallace A. Russell and Vice President Daniel J. Zaffarano of Iowa State University. E.D.K.
CONTENTS
Preface I. Some Misinterpretations of Kierkegaard 11. Kierkegaard, Logicality and the Christian Faith II!. Kierkegaard's Ethical Theory
v I
15
27
IV. Kierkegaard and the Meaningfulness of Religious Statements 38 V. Was Kierkegaard aTheist?
55
VI. Kierkegaard's Views on Christianity
74
A cknowledgments
80
CHAPTER I
SOME MISINTERPRET ATIONS OF KIERKEGAARD
One cannot help being somewhat chagrined over the fact that the more widely Kierkegaard's works are translated and read, the greater is the extent to which the Danish author is misunderstood, caricatured, and falsified. Thus so eminent a philosopher as H. J. Paton has, in a single paragraph of The Modern Predicament,l issued aseries of misinterpretations which are typical of the assertions which have been made by many writers who have read Kierkegaard's works in too cursory a fashion - or perhaps not at all! In the following remarks, I shall not attempt merely to refute Prof. Paton. Rather, I shall use his charges to illustrate the general kinds of remarks which are frequently made about Kierkegaard. Similar misinterpretations have appeared in many works, but seldom have they been so neatly assembled in one paragraph.
I
The section in which the pertinent paragraph appears is entitled "The way of absurdity." Prof. Paton discusses various paths with regard to religious matters. One of these is the way of absurdity, which is described as: "Not merely to abandon thinking, but to spum and deride it, to we1come paradox and to glorify inconsistency."2 After briefly mentioning Martin Luther as being
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