I’d like to read some Kierkegaard. But I’m terrified of Either/Or. It’s just so… huge. I know I might ask the impossible, but can anyone recommend another of Kierkegaard’s texts as a good starting point?
Jason Kuznicki
Jason Kuznicki is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and contributor of Cato Unbound. He's on twitter as JasonKuznicki. His interests include political theory and history.
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Fear & Trembling is fantastic and not too much to digest at one point.Report
Yeah, the opening discussion of Abraham and Isaac just put hooks into me and dragged me through the rest of the book.
I second this particular recommendation.Report
Concur; F&T is excellent.Report
You beat me to it- I’d recommend Fear and Trembling.Report
I went to a “great books” school and thus had many intense experiences with books, but I can safely say that none changed my life as much as Fear and Trembling. I still return to it regularly; it radically changed my perspective on religion and matters of spirit.Report
The Sickness Unto Death is fantastic.Report
I think I started with the anthology that Robert Bretall put together. A wide view might be nice, since K.’s concerns shifted over the years. But for a relatively quick read, I’ll second ASKlein on Fear and Trembling.Report
Here’s a review I wrote of a recent and excellent book on Mr. K. I hope it will be of assistance: http://www.kritike.org/journal/issue_3/cheeks_june2008.pdfReport
“but can anyone recommend another of Kierkegaard’s texts as a good starting point?”
No doubt.Report
I’d thought it unnecessary to say in so many words, but here, just for you: “Can anyone recommend another of Kierkegaard’s texts as a good starting point, and do so with some authority and/or ability to convince?”Report
I was just making a joke about Kierkegaard and “doubt”Report
Fair enough. From what I can gather at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, there’s plenty of doubt to go around, particularly as to which texts to read straight and which to read à rebours.Report
You don’t like me, do you?Report
Truthfully, I don’t know what to make of you. You are often cryptic, which doesn’t help. Or it could just be your gravatar. I’m not sure. Consider me chastened. I’ll try to give you a better shake in the future.Report
There is no intentionality associated with my crypticism, it’s just that Joycean underpatting delivered by the Spoonreaders of me youth, a nebbling boonch o intellectual hucksters who nibbled on the cusp of me pysche.Report
Huysman’s A Rebours is a great book in its own right.Report
I’m not sure how old you are, but you may be coming to this too late. I think K is one of those authors best read at about 19 when you have not yet lost patience with vainglorious self-absorption. I grant that some people will /talk/ about him with respect in later years–perhaps as late as their first divorce–but I suspect that a lot of them are remembering what they picked up in graduate school. Corollary: a lot of what people remember are the forceful and dramatic anecdotes like Abraham-and-Isaac or the tortured poet–but these at this point have been pretty often excerpted and left to stand on their own.
This said, if you want to give him a low-expense try, you might look for a short item called /The Present Age/. It is insightful in its way and it includes at least one of those memorable anecdotes though in this case, one I have not often heard repeted.Report
I have to vehemently disagree with this. Maybe I’m just not old enough to see it yet, but for me Kierkegaard has only gotten better with time. I’ve certainly had the semitragic experience of feeling that works I once thought were great have diminished over time, but none of Kierkegaard’s books are among them.Report
Max, What about Kierkegaard’s ideas has caused you to be faithful?Report
I wouldn’t try to lay claim to the mantle of faith, certainly not as Kierkegaard defines it.
I felt rather that Kierkegaard was the best “next step” for those of us who do not have faith. The kind of militant atheism popular with my cohort is such a dead-end from a philosophical standpoint…Kierkegaard was a way for a nonbeliever to reopen the conversation with the faithful, a radical reconception of faith as an end itself rather than a means to an end.
Undoubtedly I have all kinds of misconceptions about what Kierkegaard actually meant (I’m always finding new ways to correct myself when I return to his work), but the central victory he had over me was to force me to reassess the value of faith, and to at least consider it as an aspiration (if only on good days.)
And of course, he also happens to be a particularly gifted and clever writer. Come for the ideas, stay for the prose.Report
Thanks, good writing goes a long way.Report
You really should read Either/Or first, as Fear and Trembling is about what comes after Either/Or, and makes the most sense in that context. Sickness Unto Death is very good, but it doesn’t have the same scope. The Concept of Anxiety is right out, though a must read down the line.
If you’re dead set against starting with E/O, then I will break from the consensus a bit and recommend Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. It’s short, it can stand alone, ad it’s a good intro to K.’s style of writing (which can be sublime) and thinking.Report
For what it’s worth, the philosophy podcast The Partially Examined Life recently concluded a show on Kierkegaard, focusing primarily on The Sickness Unto Death. If you’re curious, give it a listen:
http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/category/podcast-episodes
A more concise podcast episode on Kierkegaard was recorded on the BBC radio program, In Our Time. You can find that episode here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009fycc
Between those two broadcasts, you might get a sense of where Kierkegaard was coming from, and which of his books you might want to read first (or last). Frankly, I think starting with an anthology might be more rewarding than just any one of his books. This is because K. had several good points to make over his body of work, but his style is not for everyone. He has some brilliant turns of phrase, and was a talented aphorist. But in terms of developing a thesis, he has a tendency to go on and on. An anthology will focus on the meat of K.’s arguments, which is what I suspect you’re most after. Anyway, consider The Essential Kierkegaard, from Princeton University Press. (It’s available through Amazon.com):
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Kierkegaard-S%C3%B8ren/dp/0691019401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290409389&sr=8-1
Good luck with it!Report