Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments: Volume II (Kierkegaard's Writings Vol. XII.2)

Soren Kierkegaard

ISBN 10: 069107402X / ISBN 13: 9780691074023

Published by Princeton University Press, 1992

About this Item

Book is in gently read condition. Black cloth boards. Binding is tight and square. Pages are clean and unmarked. Dust Jacket is in a mylar cover. Ex-library with usual markings.

Seller Inventory # 02391

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments: Volume II (Kierkegaard's Writings Vol. XII.2)
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 069107402X
• ISBN 13: 9780691074023
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

In Philosophical Fragments the pseudonymous author Johannes Climacus explored the question: What is required in order to go beyond Socratic recollection of eternal ideas already possessed by the learner? Written as an afterword to this work, Concluding Unscientific Postscript is on one level a philosophical jest, yet on another it is Climacus's characterization of the subjective thinker's relation to the truth of Christianity. At once ironic, humorous, and polemical, this work takes on the "unscientific" form of a mimical-pathetical-dialectical compilation of ideas. Whereas the movement in the earlier pseudonymous writings is away from the aesthetic, the movement in Postscript is away from speculative thought. Kierkegaard intended Postscript to be his concluding work as an author. The subsequent "second authorship" after The Corsair Affair made Postscript the turning point in the entire authorship. Part One of the text volume examines the truth of Christianity as an objective issue, Part Two the subjective issue of what is involved for the individual in becoming a Christian, and the volume ends with an addendum in which Kierkegaard acknowledges and explains his relation to the pseudonymous authors and their writings. The second volume contains the scholarly apparatus, including a key to references and selected entries from Kierkegaard's journals and papers.

Review

"The definitive edition of the Writings. The first volume . . . indicates the scholarly value of the entire series: an introduction setting the work in the context of Kierkegaard's development; a remarkably clear translation; and concluding sections of intelligent notes." (Library Journal)