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Homepage:
http://www.teol.ku.dk/english/summer_courses/
A study of the works of Copenhagen’s most radical author, the ‘father of
existentialism,’ Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Kierkegaard’s entire authorship is centered
around the existential project that every human being is confronted with: to become oneself
and none other than oneself. And as he sees it, becoming oneself does not happen passively
and is never achieved once and for all, but requires constant effort. He thus often describes
this project as one of taking responsibility for “choosing,” “gaining,” or “finding oneself.”
This course examines his witty, humorous, but also deeply earnest exploration
of the psychology of self identity. And Kierkegaard’s thoughts about the struggle for
personhood take us through perhaps unexpected territories: beginning with the breakdown of
culture-specific ethnic and religious that have traditionally defined the self, he explores the
culturally destructive power of Socrates’ irony, the art of seduction, theories of beauty and
boredom, a scathing critique of religious culture and politics, religious demands that conflict
with ethical duty, the joy of being embodied here and now, and finally, love.
We will remain especially attentive to the ways in which Kierkegaard’s thought
is critical of inherited ethnic and cultural definitions of self, and why he nonetheless considers
human relationships to be absolutely essential to understanding oneself and one’s obligations
to other human beings.
Field trip: Towards the beginning of the course, students will enjoy a sponsored weekend
bike trip to Gilleleje, Tisvilde, Gribskov and Søborgsø to see some of the sites Kierkegaard
incorporates into his authorship. We will read passages from Kierkegaard at the various sites.
Primary Literature:
Books (to be purchased before arriving in Copenhagen):
Either/Or, trans. Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1992.
Fear and Trembling, trans. Alastair Hannay, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1987.
George Pattison, Kierkegaard and the Crisis of Faith, London: SPCK, 1997.
Photocopied material (passed out in class):
Selections from The Concept of Irony.
“The Lily in the Field and the Bird of the Air” from Without Authority.
Selections from Works of Love.
Optional Secondary Literature:
Patrick Gardiner, Kierkegaard, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988 (120 pages).
Alastair Hannay, Kierkegaard and Philosophy, London: Routledge, 2003 (257 pages).
Kresten Nordentoft, Kierkegaard’s Psychology, trans. by Bruce Kirmmse, Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1978 (522 pages).
George Pattison, The Philosophy of Kierkegaard, Chesham: Acumen Press, 2006 (205 pages).
Jon Stewart, Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003 (695 pages).
Kent Brian Soderquist, The Isolated Self: Truth and Untruth in Kierkegaard’s On the Concept
of Irony, C. A. Reitzel’s Press, 2007 (205 pages).
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