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“A Satire on What It Is to Be a Human Being”: A Kierkegaardian Critique of Neoliberal Subjectivity
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Sophie Höfer
Published/Copyright:
July 10, 2024
Abstract
Neoliberalism has come to be understood not only as an economic system, but as a mode of existence that understands the self as primarily the bearer of human capital. This paper contrasts the neoliberal ideal of selfhood with Kierkegaard’s notion of the self as developed in The Sickness unto Death. Using Kierkegaard’s typology of despair as an analytical framework, I argue that the neoliberal subject displays an impoverished grasp of the various elements that, for Kierkegaard, are constitutive of the self, and shows serious deficiencies in its understanding of what it means to live a meaningful life.
I would like to thank Adam Buben for guiding me in the process of writing and publishing this paper. Further thanks go to my friends who took the time to read and comment on this project, most notably Troy Wellington Smith, as well as to an anonymous reviewer for their helpful feedback.
Online erschienen: 2024-07-10
Erschienen im Druck: 2024-07-10
© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titelseiten
- Preface
- Titelseiten
- Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Works and Journals
- Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Works and Journals
- Demonic Pantheism: Either/Or on Boredom as the Modern Crisis of Faith
- Kierkegaard, Spiritual Crisis, and Anxious Faith: Battling for Faith in Fear and Trembling and Strengthening in the Inner Being
- “Existence is the Spatiating”: Typographical Thinking and the Concept of Existence in Kierkegaard’s Postscript
- The Sickness unto Death Penalty: To Condemn the Other to Despair for the Sake of One’s Own Despair
- Section 2: Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
- Section 2: Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
- Re-Staging Existence: Revisiting Kierkegaard’s Theory of Life Stages
- Ignorance, Frailty, and Defiance: The Anxiety of Freedom
- Not a Negation, but a Position: Kierkegaard on Evil and Sin
- Original Sin and Transmission of Trauma: A Dialog between Kierkegaard’s Hamartiology and the Phenomenon of Transgenerationality
- “A Satire on What It Is to Be a Human Being”: A Kierkegaardian Critique of Neoliberal Subjectivity
- Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Who Is the Father of Existentialism? The Historical Context of Kierkegaard’s Criticism of Hegel’s Interpretation of Actuality
- Kierkegaards Auseinandersetzung mit Magnús Eiríksson: Werkstattbericht und Übersetzung
- Section 4: Receptions of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 4: Receptions of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Zwischen Glauben und Verzweiflung. Franz Werfel und Søren Kierkegaard
- La pensée existentielle de Kierkegaard et la philosophie de Charles De Koninck: contexte et résonances
- Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Contemporaries: Sources in Translation and Commentary
- Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Contemporaries: Sources in Translation and Commentary
- Martensen’s Review of Heiberg’s New Poems and the Discussion on Speculative Poetry and the Crisis of the Age
- Hans Lassen Martensen’s “New Poems by J.L. Heiberg”
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviations
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titelseiten
- Preface
- Titelseiten
- Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Works and Journals
- Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Works and Journals
- Demonic Pantheism: Either/Or on Boredom as the Modern Crisis of Faith
- Kierkegaard, Spiritual Crisis, and Anxious Faith: Battling for Faith in Fear and Trembling and Strengthening in the Inner Being
- “Existence is the Spatiating”: Typographical Thinking and the Concept of Existence in Kierkegaard’s Postscript
- The Sickness unto Death Penalty: To Condemn the Other to Despair for the Sake of One’s Own Despair
- Section 2: Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
- Section 2: Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
- Re-Staging Existence: Revisiting Kierkegaard’s Theory of Life Stages
- Ignorance, Frailty, and Defiance: The Anxiety of Freedom
- Not a Negation, but a Position: Kierkegaard on Evil and Sin
- Original Sin and Transmission of Trauma: A Dialog between Kierkegaard’s Hamartiology and the Phenomenon of Transgenerationality
- “A Satire on What It Is to Be a Human Being”: A Kierkegaardian Critique of Neoliberal Subjectivity
- Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Who Is the Father of Existentialism? The Historical Context of Kierkegaard’s Criticism of Hegel’s Interpretation of Actuality
- Kierkegaards Auseinandersetzung mit Magnús Eiríksson: Werkstattbericht und Übersetzung
- Section 4: Receptions of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 4: Receptions of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Zwischen Glauben und Verzweiflung. Franz Werfel und Søren Kierkegaard
- La pensée existentielle de Kierkegaard et la philosophie de Charles De Koninck: contexte et résonances
- Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Contemporaries: Sources in Translation and Commentary
- Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Contemporaries: Sources in Translation and Commentary
- Martensen’s Review of Heiberg’s New Poems and the Discussion on Speculative Poetry and the Crisis of the Age
- Hans Lassen Martensen’s “New Poems by J.L. Heiberg”
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviations
