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Kierkegaard
Soren Aabye Kierkegaard'un (1813-1855) eserleri, günümüzde hâlâ ilgi görmesine karşın bir bağlama oturtulmamış, yaşadıklarıyla yazdıkları arasında bir bağlantı kurulmamıştır. Hâlbuki bu yazı faaliyetinin içine yerleştiği genel bir felsefi şema bulunmaktadır. Kierkegaard, hayatını, varoluşun derin anlamına dair karmaşık keşiflere adamış bir yazardır. Bu anlamda bütün yazdıkları, kendi hakkındadır. Öte yandan okurlarını kendi varoluşlarıyla yüzleştirmek isteyen bir düşünür olarak yazdıkları sadece kendisiyle ilgili değildir; dünyada birey olma mücadelesine kafa yormuştur ömrü boyunca.
Pişman olmak ve bunun acısıyla hayatı boyunca bağlanmak için ayrıldığı sevgili nişanlısı Regine'nin kendisinden tiksinmesini sağlamak amacıyla yazdığı Ya/Ya da, onun müstear isimle yazdığı ilk kitaptır. Sonuçta ömrü boyunca hatırasına bağlı kaldığı Regine'yi kendinden soğutmayı başaramamış, bu arada okur nezdinde büyük ilgi gören eser sayesinde tanınan bir yazar olmuştur. O da Baştan Çıkarıcının Günlüğü, Korku ve Titreme, İroni Kavramı, Kaygı Kavramı, Felsefe Parçaları Ya Da Bir Parça Felsefe gibi yapıtlarla bu ilginin karşılığını vererek dünya felsefe tarihi içinde sağlam bir yer edinmiştir.
Kierkegaard, tutarlı ve zaman içinde gelişen bakış açıları kazandırdığı ondan fazla müstear isimle yazdığı kitaplarda, o karakterleri birbirleriyle ve kendisiyle tartıştırmak gibi inanılmaz bir şey yapacak kadar özgün düşünce zenginliğine sahip bir polemikçidir. "İnsanlığa olan sevgisi nedeniyle" görevinin "her yerde güçlük çıkarmak" olduğuna karar verip bu yolda tek başına azimle yürüyen bu ilginç düşünür, çevresiyle giriştiği mücadele ve rekabetten ibaret olan kısa ömrünün son deminde dünyadaki mevcudiyetinin amacına ulaştığını şöyle dile getirmiştir: "Tinim o kadar güçlü ki artık bedenimi boğuyor."
Oslo Üniversitesi Felsefe Bölümü'nün kıdemli hocası Alastair Hannay'ın, Kierkegaard düşüncesinin oluşum evrelerine odaklanarak ilerlediği elinizdeki kitap, bu ilginç felsefecinin eserlerini hayatının içine oturtan ve hayatıyla felsefesinin örtüştüğünü ortaya koyan ilk biyografidir.
Pişman olmak ve bunun acısıyla hayatı boyunca bağlanmak için ayrıldığı sevgili nişanlısı Regine'nin kendisinden tiksinmesini sağlamak amacıyla yazdığı Ya/Ya da, onun müstear isimle yazdığı ilk kitaptır. Sonuçta ömrü boyunca hatırasına bağlı kaldığı Regine'yi kendinden soğutmayı başaramamış, bu arada okur nezdinde büyük ilgi gören eser sayesinde tanınan bir yazar olmuştur. O da Baştan Çıkarıcının Günlüğü, Korku ve Titreme, İroni Kavramı, Kaygı Kavramı, Felsefe Parçaları Ya Da Bir Parça Felsefe gibi yapıtlarla bu ilginin karşılığını vererek dünya felsefe tarihi içinde sağlam bir yer edinmiştir.
Kierkegaard, tutarlı ve zaman içinde gelişen bakış açıları kazandırdığı ondan fazla müstear isimle yazdığı kitaplarda, o karakterleri birbirleriyle ve kendisiyle tartıştırmak gibi inanılmaz bir şey yapacak kadar özgün düşünce zenginliğine sahip bir polemikçidir. "İnsanlığa olan sevgisi nedeniyle" görevinin "her yerde güçlük çıkarmak" olduğuna karar verip bu yolda tek başına azimle yürüyen bu ilginç düşünür, çevresiyle giriştiği mücadele ve rekabetten ibaret olan kısa ömrünün son deminde dünyadaki mevcudiyetinin amacına ulaştığını şöyle dile getirmiştir: "Tinim o kadar güçlü ki artık bedenimi boğuyor."
Oslo Üniversitesi Felsefe Bölümü'nün kıdemli hocası Alastair Hannay'ın, Kierkegaard düşüncesinin oluşum evrelerine odaklanarak ilerlediği elinizdeki kitap, bu ilginç felsefecinin eserlerini hayatının içine oturtan ve hayatıyla felsefesinin örtüştüğünü ortaya koyan ilk biyografidir.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2001
13 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Alastair Hannay
49 books12 followersRobert Alastair Hannay was professor emeritus at the University of Oslo. Educated in Edinburgh and London, where he studied under A. J. Ayer and Bernard Williams and since 1961 resident in Norway. Hannay had written extensively on the writings of Søren Kierkegaard. His book "The Public" (2004) as well as examining the roles of the 'public' as audience and political participant, brings several Kierkegaardian insights to bear on contemporary political life. Hannay had written a novella (2020) and several pocket books on philosophical themes, as well as a memoir (2020). From 2006 to 2020 he was a member of the team translating Kierkegaard's complete journals and notebooks.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 9, 2014
Recently I complained that a biography of Rousseau spent too much time on the kind of bosom Rousseau preferred, and too little on his ideas. Alastair Hannay heard me, and wrote this book, and now I have to apologize, because I really would like a bit more of the "bosom preference as revelatory of character" approach.
But not really. Hannay's biography is not biography in any way that non-readers of philosophy would recognize it. The bulk of the text is taken up with long descriptions and analyses of Kierkegaard's work. Hannay uses Kierkegaard's journals, and his own extraordinary understanding of nineteenth century Danish intellectual history, to bring out what Kierkegaard was probably trying to do. But he also admits that Kierkegaard's late claim to have been always going in the same direction isn't very plausible.
This is all exactly as it should be for the history of ideas, but it can get a little dense (I say this as a reader of Hegel). Hannay wrote his book, it is clear, for people who already know about Kierkegaard and his books. If you don't know about him, or about his books, this book will make approximately no sense. I knew a little about him, and a little about his books, and even then I was occasionally lost. Hannay's prose doesn't help. It's clear, provided your understanding of 'clear' is 'clearer than the average german idealist.' That is not the case for most readers of Kierkegaard.
I certainly understand more about K than I did before I started, and I want to read more of his books. I'm still not convinced that his arch-enemy Martenson wasn't right to label him an individualist, a doctrine which "represses the sympathetic element in human nature [and] leads every individual to labour autopathically for his own perfection." Hannay's last chapter is a surprisingly interesting comparison between K and Lukacs. It is true, as Hannay suggests, that "Kierkegaardian subjectivity is not at all undialectical." But the real difference between K (or most philosophers) and Lukacs is that Lukacs accepts the importance of history and society in the shaping of ideas and human life. Kierkegaard does not. This biography is short on anecdotes, but I will forever remember that K allowed Either/Or to be reprinted because that would let him pay for the printing of his later works against Christendom. Lukacs could write a book about that decision and what it reveals about Kierkegaard as a thinker. For Kierkegaard, on the other hand, this was just everyday life.
But not really. Hannay's biography is not biography in any way that non-readers of philosophy would recognize it. The bulk of the text is taken up with long descriptions and analyses of Kierkegaard's work. Hannay uses Kierkegaard's journals, and his own extraordinary understanding of nineteenth century Danish intellectual history, to bring out what Kierkegaard was probably trying to do. But he also admits that Kierkegaard's late claim to have been always going in the same direction isn't very plausible.
This is all exactly as it should be for the history of ideas, but it can get a little dense (I say this as a reader of Hegel). Hannay wrote his book, it is clear, for people who already know about Kierkegaard and his books. If you don't know about him, or about his books, this book will make approximately no sense. I knew a little about him, and a little about his books, and even then I was occasionally lost. Hannay's prose doesn't help. It's clear, provided your understanding of 'clear' is 'clearer than the average german idealist.' That is not the case for most readers of Kierkegaard.
I certainly understand more about K than I did before I started, and I want to read more of his books. I'm still not convinced that his arch-enemy Martenson wasn't right to label him an individualist, a doctrine which "represses the sympathetic element in human nature [and] leads every individual to labour autopathically for his own perfection." Hannay's last chapter is a surprisingly interesting comparison between K and Lukacs. It is true, as Hannay suggests, that "Kierkegaardian subjectivity is not at all undialectical." But the real difference between K (or most philosophers) and Lukacs is that Lukacs accepts the importance of history and society in the shaping of ideas and human life. Kierkegaard does not. This biography is short on anecdotes, but I will forever remember that K allowed Either/Or to be reprinted because that would let him pay for the printing of his later works against Christendom. Lukacs could write a book about that decision and what it reveals about Kierkegaard as a thinker. For Kierkegaard, on the other hand, this was just everyday life.
April 1, 2013
www.emergenthermit.com
Alastair Hannay’s Kierkegaard is, over all, an exemplary contribution to the very peculiar genre that is the biography of the philosopher. Biographies on philosophers tend to make a few common mistakes. The first would be a mistake common in any kind of biography: the writer highlights a few sensational aspects of the subject’s life as if in desperate competition with writers of detective novels and erotica. Another common trap is when the writer tries too hard to synthesize the ideas of the philosopher with the events of his life, which the writer accomplishes by acts of grammatical ingenuity that are often awkward in execution or just downright disingenuous.
Hannay not only avoids these traps but offers a well rounded account of the philosopher’s life and work. His style is almost entirely contextual. Any means of getting an idea across—whether it be about Kierkegaard’s personal life or his work—could be said to come about through a kind of dialogue. Sometimes it is Hannay’s dialogue with history. Sometimes it is how one philosopher’s work compares to another’s and what the intellectual climate of Copenhagen or different parts of Europe were at different times. There is Kierkegaard’s dialogue with his own work, with other thinkers and with the people in his own community—which include the journalists that antagonized him and the church that he antagonized.
For a book this large, it’s impressive that Hannay goes so long without resorting to personal speculation or opinion. We’re given accounts of friends, pieces of letters, journal entrees and excerpts from the news. It has often been said of Kierkegaard’s short life that it was ‘uneventful.’ That may be the case if we talk about the mere number of major events, but the events themselves were significant in the body of work he left behind. We’re given a picture of him as a young man in school, constantly outwitting and annoying boys twice his size and more physically capable and carried through university by his highly polemic nature and by the seemingly inexhaustible abilities of his mind. He’s painted as something of a cheerful dandy, highly sarcastic and playful in public, melancholy and obsessive in private. He keeps detailed journals that offer up the fruits of his thinking and the instant points of his obsession, while relaying little of the rest of his days—days much the same in which he reads and writes for hours in cafes, takes walks and runs up bills all over town.
It is inevitable that all accounts of his life are bisected between what happened before and after the events surrounding his canceled engagement to Regina Olsen, and it is only right that they do so. One wouldn’t be exaggerating much to say that this was the pivotal turning point of his life. Not only did it prompt him to tuck himself away and write book after book for the last two decades of his life but the engagement, in some way, pervaded all of his work. John Updike rightly described Kierkegaard’s first work, Either/Or as a very flirtatious one, full of hints and seductive turns as if meant for only one reader. His subsequent works were just as haunted by the matter, this obsession being a luxury he allowed himself through his anonymity (he had dozens of pseudonyms).
When it comes to Kierkegaard’s philosophy, Hannay takes neatly constructed detours from the ‘life’ of the man as he tackles the ideas from a historical standpoint and from a contextual standpoint within the spectrum of philosophy. It is interesting to see how this private figure related to his contemporaries. He lived on the tail end of academic Hegelianism, a system he was determined to wander far outside of, no matter how all-encompassing its proselytizers claimed it to be. We learn that he felt more of a kinship with Schopenhauer than one might expect.
As it happens in some biographies, the prose can be compromised by the sheer volume of information it tries to convey in a short space so as to move on quickly to the next subject instead of breaking it up, as in this knotty sentence:
'Whether a dramatist and novelist like Arthur Schnitzler (1862 – 1931), who has many Kierkegaardian traits, actually read Kierkegaard is largely academic, as is whether, if he did do so, he read him well.'
The book is surprisingly brief in its detailing his attack on the institutional church of his community, though it could just be that the event was brief despite his most concentrated preoccupation with it. The book’s concluding chapter details the complex relationship his works have had on subsequent philosophers and different artists until now.
Clear and well-executed, it’ll be a work invaluable to anyone interested in the author’s work and its direct relationship to both his life and the history surrounding it.
www.emergenthermit.com
Alastair Hannay’s Kierkegaard is, over all, an exemplary contribution to the very peculiar genre that is the biography of the philosopher. Biographies on philosophers tend to make a few common mistakes. The first would be a mistake common in any kind of biography: the writer highlights a few sensational aspects of the subject’s life as if in desperate competition with writers of detective novels and erotica. Another common trap is when the writer tries too hard to synthesize the ideas of the philosopher with the events of his life, which the writer accomplishes by acts of grammatical ingenuity that are often awkward in execution or just downright disingenuous.
Hannay not only avoids these traps but offers a well rounded account of the philosopher’s life and work. His style is almost entirely contextual. Any means of getting an idea across—whether it be about Kierkegaard’s personal life or his work—could be said to come about through a kind of dialogue. Sometimes it is Hannay’s dialogue with history. Sometimes it is how one philosopher’s work compares to another’s and what the intellectual climate of Copenhagen or different parts of Europe were at different times. There is Kierkegaard’s dialogue with his own work, with other thinkers and with the people in his own community—which include the journalists that antagonized him and the church that he antagonized.
For a book this large, it’s impressive that Hannay goes so long without resorting to personal speculation or opinion. We’re given accounts of friends, pieces of letters, journal entrees and excerpts from the news. It has often been said of Kierkegaard’s short life that it was ‘uneventful.’ That may be the case if we talk about the mere number of major events, but the events themselves were significant in the body of work he left behind. We’re given a picture of him as a young man in school, constantly outwitting and annoying boys twice his size and more physically capable and carried through university by his highly polemic nature and by the seemingly inexhaustible abilities of his mind. He’s painted as something of a cheerful dandy, highly sarcastic and playful in public, melancholy and obsessive in private. He keeps detailed journals that offer up the fruits of his thinking and the instant points of his obsession, while relaying little of the rest of his days—days much the same in which he reads and writes for hours in cafes, takes walks and runs up bills all over town.
It is inevitable that all accounts of his life are bisected between what happened before and after the events surrounding his canceled engagement to Regina Olsen, and it is only right that they do so. One wouldn’t be exaggerating much to say that this was the pivotal turning point of his life. Not only did it prompt him to tuck himself away and write book after book for the last two decades of his life but the engagement, in some way, pervaded all of his work. John Updike rightly described Kierkegaard’s first work, Either/Or as a very flirtatious one, full of hints and seductive turns as if meant for only one reader. His subsequent works were just as haunted by the matter, this obsession being a luxury he allowed himself through his anonymity (he had dozens of pseudonyms).
When it comes to Kierkegaard’s philosophy, Hannay takes neatly constructed detours from the ‘life’ of the man as he tackles the ideas from a historical standpoint and from a contextual standpoint within the spectrum of philosophy. It is interesting to see how this private figure related to his contemporaries. He lived on the tail end of academic Hegelianism, a system he was determined to wander far outside of, no matter how all-encompassing its proselytizers claimed it to be. We learn that he felt more of a kinship with Schopenhauer than one might expect.
As it happens in some biographies, the prose can be compromised by the sheer volume of information it tries to convey in a short space so as to move on quickly to the next subject instead of breaking it up, as in this knotty sentence:
'Whether a dramatist and novelist like Arthur Schnitzler (1862 – 1931), who has many Kierkegaardian traits, actually read Kierkegaard is largely academic, as is whether, if he did do so, he read him well.'
The book is surprisingly brief in its detailing his attack on the institutional church of his community, though it could just be that the event was brief despite his most concentrated preoccupation with it. The book’s concluding chapter details the complex relationship his works have had on subsequent philosophers and different artists until now.
Clear and well-executed, it’ll be a work invaluable to anyone interested in the author’s work and its direct relationship to both his life and the history surrounding it.
www.emergenthermit.com
December 27, 2008
I have read sections for research. I would love to read the whole thing through soon. The writing is entertaining as well as informative. This Biography gives great insight into a fantastic philosopher.
March 29, 2018
A very good and detailed biography of his short life. Like always the Cambridge Philosophical biographies are first rate and extremely useful in developing a better understanding of K. work.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews