Home “Out into the Middle of Life”: The Age of Disintegration and Ecological Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Thought
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

“Out into the Middle of Life”: The Age of Disintegration and Ecological Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Thought

  • Bartholomew Ryan
Published/Copyright: September 12, 2019
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Author Information
Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook
From the journal Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Volume 24 Issue 1

Abstract

This essay is an attempt to link aspects of Kierkegaard’s experimental writings with new contemporary ecological perspectives which—in the act of interpenetration—are fusing philosophy, science, literature, anthropology, political thought, new economic perspectives, and visual and sound media, in order to open up new ways to live and flourish on a damaged planet—in our “age of disintegration.” I present Kierkegaard’s diagnosis of his time as “the age of disintegration” (from 1848) as something that can be connected to the contemporary socio-political conditions in late modernity, and to the new epoch on the horizon which we are now experiencing. I interpret Kierkegaard’s expression “out into the middle of life” as the kernel of Kierkegaard’s authorship of interruption and unsettling. I argue it can be implicitly included in aspects of ecological perspectives offered by innovative writers today.

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-2019-0018

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
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 14.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/kierke-2019-0018/html
Scroll to top button