Kierkegaard recognized that the changes ushered in by the revolutions of 1848 would profoundly affect human existence in both its political and personal dimensions. At the political level he was concerned that the new forms of government would not be able to govern any more effectively than the previous forms. Loquacity would be substituted for policy. Then, too, the new forms of government encouraged confusion about the actual locus of power; the appearances and the reality of power did not conform. (...) Also, the actual state represents ?interests?, and as a result, justice is jeopardized. To be sure, compromise will be evident in such an actual state, but is governing possible in and through such conflictual arrangements? What is the relation of the press (media) to the public, and these in turn to politics? (shrink)
This volume contains the first English translation of three of Martensen’s earliest publications. They are The Autonomy of Human Self-Consciousness in Modern Dogmatic Theology, Meister Eckhart: A Study in Speculative Theology, and Outline of a System of Moral Philosophy. The first and third of these essays were translated by Thompson, who also wrote the introduction to the volume. The essay on Eckhart was translated by Kangas.
This volume contains the first English translation of three of Martensen’s earliest publications. They are The Autonomy of Human Self-Consciousness in Modern Dogmatic Theology, Meister Eckhart: A Study in Speculative Theology, and Outline of a System of Moral Philosophy. The first and third of these essays were translated by Thompson, who also wrote the introduction to the volume. The essay on Eckhart was translated by Kangas.
This work admirably continues Thulstrup’s effort to set forth the philosophical, historical, and literary contexts of the works of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous Johannes Climacus. Howard Hong admirably translated Thulstrup’s introduction and commentary to the Philosophical Fragments and Robert J. Widenmann has succeeded as well here.
Prof. Robinson has presented a compactly written and tightly organized work on a major section of the Phenomenology. In fact one suspects that if it were not all too compact it would be easier going. Still it has its own way of being clear and it is much easier going than Hegel’s own text. We are all indebted to Prof. Robinson.
This is decidedly a book against Soren Kierkegaard, at least as he is commonly understood. The book is an interpretation, purporting to give the esoteric meaning of Kierkegaard, with the real meaning hidden under the apparent meaning.
Kierkegaard’s views of knowledge and moral psychology provide insights into certain issues that Habermas treats at length: multiculturalism and the Historikerstreit. Kierkegaard’s concept of subjective truth sustains the universality necessary to oppose racism,sexism, nationalism, fundamentalism, and the economic imperialism characteristic of some postnational states. Habermas expands Kierkegaard’s ethical concept of “choosing oneself” to politics and historiography in the debate over the Holocaust. To be a self, onemust accept responsibility for one’s “good and evil.” Likewise a nation creates its national identity (...) through the choice and enforcement of public policies, especially educational content, which subtly and pervasively create a sense of the nation. Thus a nation must acknowledge its wrongs and crimes. This robust choice enables persons to loyally witness against their nation’s history, free themselves from an inherited guilt-consciousness, and develop a freer and more cohesive politics. (shrink)
CHAPTER ONE Hegel as Poet QUENTIN LAUER To anyone who is at all familiar with Hegel's explicit attempts to write poetry — and I presume that each of us has ...
