Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 243 views

    Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Existence

    Uploaded by

    Mathew Usf
    This book review discusses two works: 1) Thought and Nature by Collins, which applies a Kantian analysis to reconcile thought and nature. The review finds the essays intriguing but wants a clearer statement of Collins' own positive view. 2) Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Existence by Dunning, which argues Kierkegaard's works can be read dialectically to show his more systematic understanding of self in relation to others and God. The review finds this approach helps counter narrow interpretations but questions if it is fully adequate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Existence

    Uploaded by

    Mathew Usf
    243 views2 pages
    This book review discusses two works: 1) Thought and Nature by Collins, which applies a Kantian analysis to reconcile thought and nature. The review finds the essays intriguing but wants a clearer statement of Collins' own positive view. 2) Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Existence by Dunning, which argues Kierkegaard's works can be read dialectically to show his more systematic understanding of self in relation to others and God. The review finds this approach helps counter narrow interpretations but questions if it is fully adequate.

    Original Description:

    Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Existence

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This book review discusses two works: 1) Thought and Nature by Collins, which applies a Kantian analysis to reconcile thought and nature. The review finds the essays intriguing but wants a clearer statement of Collins' own positive view. 2) Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Existence by Dunning, which argues Kierkegaard's works can be read dialectically to show his more systematic understanding of self in relation to others and God. The review finds this approach helps counter narrow interpretations but questions if it is fully adequate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    243 views2 pages

    Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Existence

    Uploaded by

    Mathew Usf
    This book review discusses two works: 1) Thought and Nature by Collins, which applies a Kantian analysis to reconcile thought and nature. The review finds the essays intriguing but wants a clearer statement of Collins' own positive view. 2) Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Existence by Dunning, which argues Kierkegaard's works can be read dialectically to show his more systematic understanding of self in relation to others and God. The review finds this approach helps counter narrow interpretations but questions if it is fully adequate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    BOOK REVIEWS 91

    nor a skeptic, Collins may go beyond Kant's own views. He concludes: "Our represen-
    tations embrace our thought of the universe as a system of spatiotemporal, causally
    interconnected, material objects whose existence does not depend on our thought" (p.
    242). As Collins himself points out, this comes very close to saying either that things-in-
    themselves are also spatiotemporal or that it makes no difference what things-in-themselves
    are. While the latter seems the more Kantian, neither statement is without problems as
    a reflection of Kant's intent. Whether or not Collins steps beyond the limits of Kant's
    thought, the essay is both intriguing and well done. Collins fights through straining
    oppositions in Kant's thought to try to find a view consistent with the spirit of Kant's
    projects. As with any essay there are points of contention: issues for which Collins might
    be taken to task. One might like to see, for example, more emphasis on the specific role
    of the schematism relative to the rejection of idealism. But such criticism seems better
    taken as grounds for further discussion; the essay certainly satisfies its own objectives.
    As a unified work, Thought and Nature sets limited goals and achieves them. There
    is only one loose end that causes me any concern. In his introduction, Collins rightly
    points to the superficiality of contemporary attempts to resolve the Cartesian and rationalist
    problems concerning thought and nature. Indeed, perhaps the most significant reason for
    this book itself is that contemporary philosophy cannot address rationalist philosophy
    until it overcomes its own superficial understanding of it. Bearing this in mind, Collins
    surely has his own project at stake in this series of essays: how to deal with the thought!
    nature dichotomy from a contemporary perspective. While I find him agreeing in part
    with Leibniz and more thoroughly with Kantianism, I am left wanting a more positive
    statement from Collins himself. But I am no doubt asking too much; what counts is what
    is before us. And, as it stands, the book is interesting after two readings and deserves more.

    Douglas R. Anderson
    Wittenberg University

    KIERKEGAARD'S DIALECTIC OF EXISTENCE: A STRUCTURAL


    ANALYSIS OF THE THEORY OF STAGES
    Stephen N. Dunning
    Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. i-xvii + 323 pp. $32.00.

    Two themes form the basis for this volume. First, the author argues that the relation
    between an outer transient nature and an inner eternal nature provides a thread which
    enables the interpreter to trace a coherent point of view and provide an immanent criticism
    of Kierkegaard's pseudonymous texts. Second, he argues that there is a dialectic of self
    and other running throughout the pseudonymous works which challenges the view that
    Kierkegaard's image of the human being is that of a single solitary one. He develops
    these themes by applying a structural analysis to these works.
    Beginning with The Concept of Irony which is taken as evidence of Kierkegaard's
    early talent for writing in a dialectical manner (whether in earnest or as a parody), Dunning
    92 IDEALISTIC STUDIES

    introduces the kind of Hegelian dialectical analysis that he will apply to all the major
    pseudonymous tests. In Hegel's dialectic of mediation, the third stage is more than a
    paradoxical unity of two contradictory poles. Mediation is understood as a union in which
    opposites are taken up into a third stage as aspects or moments of a new reality where
    they lose their negative character and are fulfilled in their true nature as positively related
    to each other. In applying this kind of analysis to Kierkegaard's work, Dunning does not
    claim that it is necessary to read the pseudonymous works in this way or even that
    Kierkegaard consciously writes in dialectical patterns. But he does argue that in spite of
    Kierkegaard's protestations against Hegel's dialectic of mediation, a version of this can
    be discerned throughout the pseudonymous texts and that reading Kierkegaard in this
    manner shows that he provides an understanding of inner and outer self and self in relation
    to others and God, that is more systematic than some have thought. Dunning traces these
    dialectical themes in each of the major pseudonymous texts and relates them to one another
    in the theory of stages, arguing that there is a systematic development from the aesthetic
    to the ethical which culminates in the religious.
    It is in Concluding Unscientific Postscript that the dialectic of inner and outer, self
    and other, is understood to culminate in a systematic Aujhebung. In religiousness B, the
    incommensurability of inner and outer is made commensurable in the revelatory paradox
    of the incarnation; and self, other, and divine are fulfilled and reconciled in the paradox
    of inward and divine otherness. As such, religiousness B is understood to be the culmination
    of the religious stage and the dialectical fulfillment of the aesthetic and ethical stages.
    This approach to reading Kierkegaard may detract in some ways from the enigmatic
    character of some of his writing. But it does bring into relief many of the relational
    aspects of Kierkegaard's understanding of human existence and helps counter some of
    the more narrow interpretations of Kierkegaard's image of persons. Dunning's aim is to
    provide a structural reading of Kierkegaard, not a critical analysis of his image of human
    being. But we are left with the question whether even this more relational understanding
    of Kierkegaard's concept of the self is an adequate one.

    Eugene Thomas Long


    The University of South Carolina

    SCHOPENHAUERS PHILOSOPHIE DER NATURWISSENSCHAFT:


    APRIORITATSLEHRE UND METHODENLEHRE ALS
    GRENZZIEHUNG NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHER
    ERKENNTNIS
    Martin Morgenstern
    Bonn: Bouvier, 1985. 194 pp. 48 DM.

    Morgenstern's book succeeds admirably in bridging the gap between idealism and contem-
    porary philosophy of science.

    You might also like