Arne Gron's reading of Soren Kierkegaard's authorship revolves around existential challenges of human identity. The 35 essays that constitute this book are written over three decades and are characterized by combining careful attention to the augmentative detail of Kierkegaard's text with a constant focus on issues in contemporary philosophy. Contrary to many approaches to Kierkegaard's authorship, Gron does not read Kierkegaard in opposition to Hegel. The work of the Danish thinker is read as a critical development of Hegelian phenomenology with particular attention to existential aspects of human experience. Anxiety and despair are the primary existential phenomena that Kierkegaard examines throughout his authorship, and Gron uses these negative phenomena to argue for the basically ethical aim of Kierkegaard's work. In Gron's reading, Kierkegaard conceives human selfhood not merely as relational, but also a process of becoming the self that one is through the otherness of self-experience, that is, the body, the world, other people, and God. This book should be of interest to philosophers, theologians, literary studies scholars, and anyone with an interest not only in Kierkegaard, but also in human identity.

Recently there has been a growing interest not only in existentialism, but also in existential questions, as well as key figures in existential thinking. Yet despite this renewed interest, a systematic reconsideration of Kierkegaard's existential approach is missing. This anthology is the first in a series of three that will attempt to fill this lacuna. The 13 chapters of the first anthology deal with various aspects of Kierkegaard's existential approach. Its reception will be examined in the works of influential philsophers such as Heidegger, Gadamer, and Habermas, as well as in lesser known philosophers from the interwar period, such as Jean Wahl, Lev Shestov, and Benjamin Fondane. Other chapters reconsider central notions, such as "anxiety", "existence", "imagination", and "despair". Finally, some chapters deal with Kierkegaard's relevance for central issues in contemporary philosophy, including "naturalism", "self-constitution", and "bioethics". This book is of relevance not only to researchers working in Kierkegaard Studies, but to anyone with an interest in existentialism and existential thinking.

Danish Yearbook of Philosophy - Volume 35

Danish Yearbook of Philosophy - Volume 33

This volume of Danish Yearbook of Philosophy contains articles read as papers at the Symposium on Social Constructivism held in Copenhagen in 1992.

Danish Yearbook of Philosophy - Volume 29

Danish Yearbook of Philosophy - Volume 31

On Jean Amery provides a comprehensive discussion of one of the most challenging and complex post-Holocaust thinkers, Jean Amery (1912-1978), a Jewish-Austrian-Belgian essayist, journalist and literary author. In the English-speaking world Amery is known for his poignant publication, At the Mind's Limits, a narrative of exile, dispossession, torture, and Auschwitz. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in Amery's writings on victimization and resentment, partly attributable to a modern fascination with tolerance, historical injustice, and reconciliatory ambitions. Many aspects of Amery's writing have remained largely unexplored outside the realm of European scholarship, and his legacy in English-language scholarship limited to discussions of victimization and memory. This volume offers the first English language collection of academic essays on the post-Holocaust thought of Jean Amery. Comprehensive in scope and multi-disciplinary in orientation, contributors explore central aspects of Amery's philosophical and ethical position, including dignity, responsibility, resentment, and forgiveness. What emerges from the pages of this book is an image of Amery as a difficult and perplexing-yet exceptionally engaging-thinker, whose writings address some of the central paradoxes of survivorship and witnessing. The intellectual and ethical questions of Amery's philosophies are equally pertinent today as they were half-century ago: How one can reconcile with the irreconcilable? How can one account for the unaccountable? And, how can one live after catastrophe?

Hegel's influence on post-Hegelian philosophy is as profound as it is ambiguous. Modern philosophy is philosophy after Hegel. Taking leave of Hegel's system appears to be a common feature of modern and post-modern thought. One could even argue that giving up Hegel's claim of totality defines philosophy after Hegel. Modern and post-modern philosophies are philosophies of fini-tude: Hegel's philosophy cannot be repeated. However, its status as a negative backdrop for modern and post-modern thought already shows its pervasive influence. Precisely in its criticism of Hegel, modern thought is bound up with his thinking. - Arne Gron (from the Introduction)

This is a Danish classic available in translation. From the preface: ""The Concept of Anxiety"" is one of Kierkegaard's major works. It summarizes and anticipates themes that are developed in his other works, but not by presenting a unified perception. It has more the character of a work that constitutes a turning point: themes from earlier works (in particular Either/Or) are pursued in a broken way that gives a new starting point for later works. Even though ""The Concept of Anxiety"" is often an unreasonably difficult book, it is worthwhile to read as a gateway to the entire works of Kierkegaard. 'In the following chapters I will provide a thematic introduction to Kierkegaard's body of work based on ""The Concept of Anxiety"". In chapter 1, which in volume is already different from the others, I explore ways of thinking and major themes in The Concept of Anxiety, and then in the following chapters I pursue them in other works, only to return to The Concept of Anxiety. 'Since an introduction to Kierkegaard is also an invitation to read Kierkegaard himself; I give many text references as we go along, but I hope in a discrete way so that it does not disturb the coherent reading of the book. The text references are also extensive for another reason. When one wants to examine the major themes of Kierkegaard's work, it is important to connect these themes to the individual works in order to get a feeling for both the often complex development in the individual text and for the differences and tensions between the individual works. At the same time I have in a more discursive way tried to hold on to questions, cross referencing them with the individual works'.