Home Andreas Frederik Beck’s Review of Kierkegaard’s On the Concept of Irony
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Andreas Frederik Beck’s Review of Kierkegaard’s On the Concept of Irony

  • Paul Muench
Published/Copyright: July 26, 2018
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Author Information
Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook
From the journal Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Volume 23 Issue 1

Abstract

This article provides an English translation (with commentary) of Andreas Frederik Beck’s review of Kierkegaard’s On the Concept of Irony. Beck’s review is notable for its detailed, scholarly discussion of Kierkegaard’s text. While Beck draws attention to the unusual style of Kierkegaard’s dissertation and to Kierkegaard’s occasional use of irony, he does not treat the dissertation as itself ironic in overall form or intent. Kierkegaard’s response to this review, in which he makes the rare acknowledgement that Beck “has come quite close to having understood” him, provides indirect textual support for thinking that Beck is right in regarding Kierkegaard’s treatise on irony as a serious, scholarly work that is not itself essentially ironic.

This translation was begun at the suggestion of K. Brian Söderquist. I completed an initial draft while working with my Danish tutor Karen Benedicte Busk-Jepsen. I am grateful to the two of them and to Jon Stewart for the help and support they gave me during the initial phase of this project. I also want to thank Christian Tolstrup for additional help with Danish, Susanna Schellenberg and Heiko Schulz for help with German, the Danish Fulbright Commission for its generous financial backing, and Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and the other members of the Søren Kierkegaard Research Center for kindly providing me with a place to work and for inviting me to take part in their research community. Thanks also to David Berger, Bridget Clarke, and Jon Stewart for their valuable feedback on my final draft.

Online erschienen: 2018-07-26

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Front matter
  2. Title pages
  3. Preface
  4. Contents
  5. Articles
  6. Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard: Problems and Perspectives
  7. There is No Teleological Suspension of the Ethical: Kierkegaard’s Logic Against Religious Justification and Moral Exceptionalism
  8. Kierkegaard on Variation and Thought Experiment
  9. Subjectivity and Ambiguity: Anxiety and Love in Kierkegaard
  10. Faith and Knowledge: Remarks Inspired by Søren Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments
  11. Anti-Climacus’ Inverted Dialectic of Divine Grace and Human Activity
  12. Recognition, Self-Recognition, and God: An Interpretation of The Sickness unto Death as an Existential Theory of Self-Recognition
  13. A Portrait of Spiritlessness in the Age of Leveling
  14. The Reality of Love: An Affirmative Vision of Christianity Based on Kierkegaard’s Interpretation of the Maxim: Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
  15. Section 2: Source–work Studies
  16. Kierkegaard and the Danish Golden Age: The Strengths and Limits of Source-Work Research
  17. From Enthusiasm to Irony: Kierkegaard’s Reception of Norse Mythology and Literature
  18. Die Ausnahme bei Christian Garve und Søren Kierkegaard
  19. Section 3: Kierkegaard Reception
  20. Erkenntnis und Liebe. Zur Nähe und Ferne zwischen Heinrich Barths und Søren Kierkegaards Verständnis von Gemeinschaft
  21. Communication of Existence: Søren Kierkegaard and Gabriel Marcel
  22. Pseudonymous Voices Talking Back: Kierkegaard’s Plural Perspectives and a Wittgensteinian Point of View
  23. Section 4: Primary Texts in Translation
  24. Andreas Frederik Beck’s Review of Kierkegaard’s On the Concept of Irony
  25. Back matter
  26. Abbreviations
  27. List of Contributors
https://doi.org/10.1515/kierke-2018-0016

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Front matter
  2. Title pages
  3. Preface
  4. Contents
  5. Articles
  6. Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard: Problems and Perspectives
  7. There is No Teleological Suspension of the Ethical: Kierkegaard’s Logic Against Religious Justification and Moral Exceptionalism
  8. Kierkegaard on Variation and Thought Experiment
  9. Subjectivity and Ambiguity: Anxiety and Love in Kierkegaard
  10. Faith and Knowledge: Remarks Inspired by Søren Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments
  11. Anti-Climacus’ Inverted Dialectic of Divine Grace and Human Activity
  12. Recognition, Self-Recognition, and God: An Interpretation of The Sickness unto Death as an Existential Theory of Self-Recognition
  13. A Portrait of Spiritlessness in the Age of Leveling
  14. The Reality of Love: An Affirmative Vision of Christianity Based on Kierkegaard’s Interpretation of the Maxim: Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
  15. Section 2: Source–work Studies
  16. Kierkegaard and the Danish Golden Age: The Strengths and Limits of Source-Work Research
  17. From Enthusiasm to Irony: Kierkegaard’s Reception of Norse Mythology and Literature
  18. Die Ausnahme bei Christian Garve und Søren Kierkegaard
  19. Section 3: Kierkegaard Reception
  20. Erkenntnis und Liebe. Zur Nähe und Ferne zwischen Heinrich Barths und Søren Kierkegaards Verständnis von Gemeinschaft
  21. Communication of Existence: Søren Kierkegaard and Gabriel Marcel
  22. Pseudonymous Voices Talking Back: Kierkegaard’s Plural Perspectives and a Wittgensteinian Point of View
  23. Section 4: Primary Texts in Translation
  24. Andreas Frederik Beck’s Review of Kierkegaard’s On the Concept of Irony
  25. Back matter
  26. Abbreviations
  27. List of Contributors
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 3.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/kierke-2018-0016/pdf
Scroll to top button