Stages on Life's Way : Kierkegaard's Writings, Vol 11

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest books ever written
Review: For a long time, _Stages on Life's Way_ sat atop the list of my favorite books of all time. This book is a gut-wrenching account of Kierkegaard's tragic problems with women, and is a vivid portrait of a man who is snake-bit in his love life. I can especially relate to this book, being that I am not married, most likely never will be married, and am singlemindedly obsessed with sitting around reading philosophers like Kierkegaard and Jung. I can honestly attest that I broke up with the love of my life, with no regrets, just because she was preventing me from reading as much Kierkegaard as I would have liked. And this is eerily similar to Kierkegaard's own experience in this book.

Although this book still qualifies as non-fiction philosophy, it often has an autobiographical, and sometimes outright ficticious feel to it. This ultimately enhances the readability of the book, because it often refers to situations inspired by the author's own experiences; these real-life situations then help to exemplify and clarify Kierkegaard's key concepts. It is frustrating to read authors who expound one abstract theory after another and never bother to set-up a realistic situation in which these human-behavioral concepts might come into play. Kierkegaard is almost never guilty of doing this. His style is always firmly grounded in reality, and is thereby more readily translatable than most other authors from the same time period.

I highly recommend this book to anyone out there, especially someone who, like myself, has found himself torn between a philosophy-centered avocation and a love life which always seems to be trying to tear us away from our real passions and duties. If I could give it 6 stars I would. Unconditionally recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A "Repetition" on Either/Or
Review: This book is a second and more complete version of Either/Or. It is more complete in that instead of ending with a sermon (The edification to be found in the thought that before God we are all in the wrong)as does Either/Or, it actually explores the religious sphere, the highest sphere of existence in Kierkegaard's schema. As in all of Kierkegaard's writings, this is not an abstract exploratiton of the spheres, but is embodied in characters, the most characters in any of Kierkegaard's work. It is an alarmingly complex and aggravating work. The aggravation comes in with the characters occassionally demanding to know whether the reader has a life and how can s/he possibly waste his time with drivel like this. The work is divided into three parts, one for each sphere. The aesthetic sphere is represented by a updating of Plato's Symposium, with Kierkegaard repeating a number of pervious characters, (Constantine Constantinus, Victor Eremita, the Young Man, Johannes the Seducer) and introducing a new character, the Fashion designer. The subject of the speeches: Women. The second part, presenting the Ethical sphere, heralds the return of Judge William from the second part of Either/Or, this time uncomfortably sandwiched between the Aesthetic and the religious spheres. In Either/Or he is smug, but in this book he cannot pretend his position has any kind of ultimacy. The Religious calls his position constantly into question. The ethical is the relative, the religious the absolute. The Ethical claims we should repent our sins, while the religous claims that all the sins of the world are our sins, and not only collectively, but individually. We must repent the sins of the entire world. This is something the ethical cannot accept. The Religious sphere is represented by "Quidams's Diary." This is a repetition on the "Seducer's diary" which ends the first half of Either/Or. This time, however, the principal is a sufferer instead of a predator. He is hopeless, sad and sorrowful having just ended an unhappy love affair. This sorrow launches him beyond the ethical into a dark night of the soul. The Diary entries are interpursed,on the fifth of each month (Kierkegaard was born on the fifth of May) by brilliant little stories which comment on the process of the soul's healing. Frater Taciturnus (Brother Silent, perhaps related to Johannes de silento of Fear and Trembling?) also provides a commentary. The problem with the book is that once Kierkegaard claimed that he wanted his reader to expend as much effort reading his books as he did in writing them. He has made sure in this case that he would achieve this goal. If it weren't for the quality and overwhelming wealth of the content, this one wouldn't worth it. As it is, you should probably read the earlier books of Kierkegaard's authorship first. With this one, you need all the help you can get.