Of Clairvoyants and Mousvoyants: Kierkegaard’s Polemic against Speculative Philosophy in the “Telegraph Messages”
-
Elizabeth Li
Abstract
This article explores Kierkegaard’s largely overlooked 1838 paper “Telegraph Messages from a Mousvoyant to a Clairvoyant concerning the Relation between Xnty and Philosophy,” and argues that it can be read as a polemic against the speculative unity of philosophy and Christianity and speculative thought’s epistemological optimism, especially targeting the Danish speculative theologian Hans Lassen Martensen. It will be suggested that the “Telegraph Messages” offer a corrective to this view by separating Christianity and philosophy and underlining the ambiguity of human existence and the paradoxicality of the religious sphere, thus foreshadowing key themes in Kierkegaard’s mature pseudonymous authorship.
An early version of this paper was presented at the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre Project Seminar in May 2019, and I would like to thank René Rosfort, Ettore Rocca, Brian Söderquist, Joakim Garff, Iben Damgaard, Kristian Bunkenborg, Paulo Lopes, Cæcilie Varslev, and Eleanor Helms for their generous and incisive comments on this occasion and in later conversations. I would also like to thank Joel Rasmussen, Dritëro Demjaha, and Karl Verstrynge for their invaluable insights and suggestions.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Title pages
- Preface
- Contents
- Articles
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- A Christian Art? Søren Kierkegaard’s Views on Music and Musical Performance Reconsidered
- Between the Two Ethics: Why Assessor Wilhelm is not a Judge
- Narrative Variation and the Mood of Freedom in Fear and Trembling
- On Fear and Trembling’s Motif of the Promise: Faith, Ethics and the Politics of Tragedy
- The Ambiguity of Mimesis: Kierkegaard between Aesthetic Fantasy and Religious Imitation
- Know Yourself in the Mirror of the Word: Kierkegaard on Self-Knowledge
- „Mein Bestreben, das Martyrium zu verherrlichen…“ Zur Idee des Martyriums in Kierkegaards Journalen ab 1846
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- The Faust Project in Kierkegaard’s Early Journals
- Of Clairvoyants and Mousvoyants: Kierkegaard’s Polemic against Speculative Philosophy in the “Telegraph Messages”
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Does Kierkegaard’s Rewritten Parable of the Good Samaritan Leave the World to the Devil? Kierkegaard and Adorno on What it Means to Love one’s Neighbor in the Modern World
- Kierkegaard and Beauvoir: Existential Ethics as a Humanism
- Double Consciousness and Despair: Exploring a Connection Between Søren Kierkegaard and W.E.B. Du Bois
- Hitchcock Meets Kierkegaard: Selfhood and Gendered Forms of Despair in Vertigo and The Sickness unto Death
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- The Mutiny of the Pseudonyms in the Kierkegaardian Authorship
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s “Literary Winter Crops” and Kierkegaard’s Polemic
- Back matter
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Title pages
- Preface
- Contents
- Articles
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- A Christian Art? Søren Kierkegaard’s Views on Music and Musical Performance Reconsidered
- Between the Two Ethics: Why Assessor Wilhelm is not a Judge
- Narrative Variation and the Mood of Freedom in Fear and Trembling
- On Fear and Trembling’s Motif of the Promise: Faith, Ethics and the Politics of Tragedy
- The Ambiguity of Mimesis: Kierkegaard between Aesthetic Fantasy and Religious Imitation
- Know Yourself in the Mirror of the Word: Kierkegaard on Self-Knowledge
- „Mein Bestreben, das Martyrium zu verherrlichen…“ Zur Idee des Martyriums in Kierkegaards Journalen ab 1846
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- The Faust Project in Kierkegaard’s Early Journals
- Of Clairvoyants and Mousvoyants: Kierkegaard’s Polemic against Speculative Philosophy in the “Telegraph Messages”
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Does Kierkegaard’s Rewritten Parable of the Good Samaritan Leave the World to the Devil? Kierkegaard and Adorno on What it Means to Love one’s Neighbor in the Modern World
- Kierkegaard and Beauvoir: Existential Ethics as a Humanism
- Double Consciousness and Despair: Exploring a Connection Between Søren Kierkegaard and W.E.B. Du Bois
- Hitchcock Meets Kierkegaard: Selfhood and Gendered Forms of Despair in Vertigo and The Sickness unto Death
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- The Mutiny of the Pseudonyms in the Kierkegaardian Authorship
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s “Literary Winter Crops” and Kierkegaard’s Polemic
- Back matter
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
