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Kierkegaard as a Thinker of Alienation

  • Jon Stewart
Published/Copyright: September 12, 2019
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Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook
From the journal Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Volume 24 Issue 1

Abstract

Alienation is a key theme in both the philosophical tradition of the 19th century that begins with Hegel and Marx and in the heterogenous school of existentialist thought in the 20th century. Kierkegaard is often included in narratives of these philosophical traditions, but his contribution to this topic is problematic. Unlike figures such as Marx or Sartre, he almost never uses the term “alienation” explicitly. The question then becomes one of interpretation: what ideas in Kierkegaard bear a meaningful family resemblance to the concept as it is found in other thinkers in these traditions? In this article I have identified three different texts from Kierkegaard in which concepts are discussed that I believe can be rightfully designated as forms of alienation: “The Unhappiest One,” from Either/Or, “The Present Age” from A Literary Review, and the different stages of despair in The Sickness unto Death. The goal is simply to use these texts as the basis or starting point for developing an understanding of Kierkegaard’s concept of alienation. This will then in turn help us to determine more precisely his contribution to the development of philosophy in the 19th and 20th centuries.

This work was produced at the Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences. It was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-15 – 0682.

Online erschienen: 2019-09-12

© 2019 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: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  7. Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  8. Kierkegaard’s Aesthete in Either/Or: Using Hegelian Mediation in Everyday Life
  9. Kierkegaard on the Dancers of Faith and of Infinity
  10. Climacus’ Miracle: Another Look at “the Wonder” in Philosophical Fragments through a Spinozist Lens
  11. Naked Before God: Kierkegaard’s Liturgical Self
  12. Das palimpsestische Selbst. Zur Genese, Struktur, Darstellung und Vermittlung von personaler Identität nach Sören Kierkegaard
  13. Das Verhältnis von Selbstwerdung und Gott bei Sören Kierkegaard. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme
  14. Kierkegaard’s Secret Politics of Anguish and Love
  15. Kierkegaard as a Thinker of Alienation
  16. To Be(come) Love Itself: Charity as Acquired Originality
  17. Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  18. Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  19. Pseudonyms? What Pseudonyms? There were no Pseudonyms…
  20. A Prompter’s Play? Kierkegaard’s Puzzling Portrait of Authorial Withdrawal in “An Occasional Discourse”
  21. Kierkegaard’s Authorship as Eucharistic Liturgy
  22. Section 3: Kierkegaardian Resources for Current Debates and Challenges
  23. Section 3: Kierkegaardian Resources for Current Debates and Challenges
  24. Defiance Before the Law: Kierkegaard, Kafka, Coetzee
  25. Existence Philosophy as a Humanism?
  26. Towards a Kierkegaardian Retreating of the Political
  27. Weird Allies? Kierkegaard and Object-Oriented Ontology
  28. Unplug Your Life: Digital Detox Through a Kierkegaardian Lens
  29. “Out into the Middle of Life”: The Age of Disintegration and Ecological Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Thought
  30. Back matter
  31. Abbreviations
  32. List of Contributors
https://doi.org/10.1515/kierke-2019-0008

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Front matter
  2. Title pages
  3. Preface
  4. Contents
  5. Articles
  6. Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  7. Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  8. Kierkegaard’s Aesthete in Either/Or: Using Hegelian Mediation in Everyday Life
  9. Kierkegaard on the Dancers of Faith and of Infinity
  10. Climacus’ Miracle: Another Look at “the Wonder” in Philosophical Fragments through a Spinozist Lens
  11. Naked Before God: Kierkegaard’s Liturgical Self
  12. Das palimpsestische Selbst. Zur Genese, Struktur, Darstellung und Vermittlung von personaler Identität nach Sören Kierkegaard
  13. Das Verhältnis von Selbstwerdung und Gott bei Sören Kierkegaard. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme
  14. Kierkegaard’s Secret Politics of Anguish and Love
  15. Kierkegaard as a Thinker of Alienation
  16. To Be(come) Love Itself: Charity as Acquired Originality
  17. Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  18. Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  19. Pseudonyms? What Pseudonyms? There were no Pseudonyms…
  20. A Prompter’s Play? Kierkegaard’s Puzzling Portrait of Authorial Withdrawal in “An Occasional Discourse”
  21. Kierkegaard’s Authorship as Eucharistic Liturgy
  22. Section 3: Kierkegaardian Resources for Current Debates and Challenges
  23. Section 3: Kierkegaardian Resources for Current Debates and Challenges
  24. Defiance Before the Law: Kierkegaard, Kafka, Coetzee
  25. Existence Philosophy as a Humanism?
  26. Towards a Kierkegaardian Retreating of the Political
  27. Weird Allies? Kierkegaard and Object-Oriented Ontology
  28. Unplug Your Life: Digital Detox Through a Kierkegaardian Lens
  29. “Out into the Middle of Life”: The Age of Disintegration and Ecological Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Thought
  30. Back matter
  31. Abbreviations
  32. List of Contributors
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