Lukács and Kierkegaard: Decadence or Despair

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 489-500
Author(s):  
Alastair Hannay
Keyword(s):  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Bourgeois Culture ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Gyorgy Lukacs

Abstract A distrust of focus on subjectivity and the individual provoked by his meeting with Sartrean existentialism led György Lukács to turn his early but qualified admiration of Søren Kierkegaard into an accusation of fostering a bourgeois culture of the kind Kierkegaard is usually thought to have opposed. Not every Marxian thinker has been equally wary of subjectivity, but all have found in Kierkegaard a crucial absence of concern for human exploitation within a context of natural scarcity. However, a more measured reading suggests a case for resolving the need to choose between Lukács’s insistence on “spirit” as a collective notion and Kierkegaard’s as cultivation of a trans-historically oriented, self-stabilizing social will.

Entre o mestre e o discípulo nas Migalhas Filosóficas: a existência educadora em Kierkegaard

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-174
Author(s):  
Fransmar Costa Lima
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Basic Point ◽  
The Individual

Resumo: O artigo que ora se apresenta é, na realidade, um pequeno ensaio que tem por finalidade indagar a importância da educação no pensamento de Søren Kierkegaard e investigar se, no âmbito da existência como possibilidade, uma educação voltada para a subjetividade se mostra efetiva diante dos debates acerca da liberdade e da singularidade do indivíduo. Pouco se debate sobre o conceito de educação em Kierkegaard, porém, acreditamos que se trata de um ponto basilar no pensamento do filósofo dinamarquês, conforme buscamos demonstrar, e deve ser objeto de maiores pesquisas, estudos e reflexões. Tomamos como referência para o início desse debate textos como as Migalhas Filosóficas e o Post-Scriptum, onde a subjetividade e a singularidade aparecem como conceitos fundamentais.Palavras-chave: Educação. Existência. Singularidade. Subjetividade. Kierkegaard. Abstract: The present article is, in fact, a small essay whose purpose is to investigate the importance of education in Søren Kierkegaard's thinking and to investigate whether, in the scope of existence as a possibility, an education focused on subjectivity is effective before the debates about the freedom and the singularity of the individual. There is little debate about the concept of education in Kierkegaard, but we believe that this is a basic point in the thinking of the Danish philosopher, as we seek to demonstrate, and should be the object of further research, study and reflection. We take as reference for the beginning of this debate texts such as the Philosophical Fragments and the Post-Scriptum, where subjectivity and singularity appear as fundamental concepts.Keywords: Education. Existence. Uniqueness. Subjectivity. Kierkegaard. REFERÊNCIASALMEIDA, J.M A alteridade na construção da ética de Kierkegaard e Lévinas. In:  Revista Controvérsia - Vol. 6, n° 1: 36-45 (jan-mai 2010), São Leopoldo: UNISINOS, 2010.KIERKEGAARD, Søren. Diario: 1847-1848, Vol. 4. 3ª ed. A cura di Cornelio Fabro. Brescia: Morcelliana, 1980. (D 4)._______. Opere. Sansoni Editore. Milano: 1993._______. Postilla Conclusiva no Scientifica alle Briciole di Filosofia. In: Opere. Tradução e organização de Cornélio Fabro. Sansoni Editore: Milano, 1993._______. As obras do amor: algumas considerações cristãs em forma de discurso. Tradução de Álvaro Valls. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2005._______. Três Discursos Edificantes de 1843. Tradução de Henri Nicolay Levinspuhl.  Publicação do Tradutor. Rio de Janeiro:  2000.KIERKEGAARD, Søren. Migalhas filosóficas ou um bocadinho de filosofia de João Climacus. Tradução de Álvaro Valls, e Ernani Reichmann. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2001._______. O conceito de Ironia: constantemente referido à Sócrates. Tradução de Álvaro Valls, e Ernani Reichmann. Vozes: Rio de Janeiro, 1997._______. Johannes Climacus ou É preciso duvidar de tudo. Tradução Silvia Saviano Sampaio e Álvaro Valls. Martins Fontes: São Paulo, 2003._______. Diário Íntimo. Tradução de Maria Angélica Bosco. Santiago Rueda: Buenos Aires, 1989MARTINS, J.S.; VALLS, A. L. M. (orgs.). Kierkegaard no nosso tempo. Nova Harmonia: São Leopoldo: 2010. 

scholarly journals The Normativity of Habermas’s Public Sphere from the Vantage Point of Its Evolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-65
Author(s):  
Maciej Hułas
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Private Property ◽  
The Public ◽  
Age Of Reason ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
Classical Setting ◽  
Bourgeois Culture ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual

The paper argues that the original normativity that provides the basis for Habermas’s model of the public sphere remains untouched at its core, despite having undergone some corrective alterations since the time of its first unveiling in the 1960s. This normative core is derived from two individual claims, historically articulated in the eighteenth-century’s “golden age” of reason and liberty as both sacred and self-evident: (1) the individual right to an unrestrained disposal of one’s private property; and (2) the individual right to formulate one’s opinion in the course of public debate. Habermas perceives the public sphere anchored to these two fundamental freedoms/rights as an arena of interactive opinion exchange with the capacity to solidly and reliably generate sound reason and public rationality. Despite its historical and cultural attachments to the bourgeois culture as its classical setting, Habermas’s model of the public sphere, due to its universal normativity, maintains its unique character, even if it has been thoroughly reformulated by social theories that run contrary to his original vision of the lifeworld, organized and ruled by autonomous rational individuals.     

Nazi Film Melodrama

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Heins
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Bourgeois Culture ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nazi Era

Focusing on German romance films, domestic melodramas, and home front films from 1933 to 1945, this book shows how melodramatic elements in Nazi cinema functioned as part of a project to move affect, body, and desire beyond the confines of bourgeois culture and participate in a curious modernization of sexuality engineered to advance the imperialist goals of the Third Reich. Rather than reinforcing traditional gender role divisions and the status quo of the nuclear family, these films were much more permissive about desire and sexuality than previously assumed. Offering a comparative analysis of Nazi productions with classical Hollywood films of the same era, the book argues that Nazi melodramas, film writing, and popular media appealed to viewers by promoting liberation from conventional sexual morality and familial structures, presenting the Nazi state and the individual as dynamic and revolutionary. Drawing on extensive archival research, this perceptive study highlights the seemingly contradictory aspects of gender representation and sexual morality in Nazi-era cinema.

Kierkegaard on Sin

1964 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Nineteen Thirties ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Christian Writer

In the nineteen-thirties, when Søren Kierkegaard was beginning to become internationally known and his ideas were being eagerly discussed, Theodor Haecker noted that of all those who had reason to take up the task of interpretation the theologians were the least active. Today, in spite of the wealth of Kierkegaardian studies available, the situation is not so very different. The great Christian writer is still more commonly thought of as the pioneer of existentialism than as a skilled exponent of Christianity, and the bearing of his teaching upon doctrinal issues is seldom mentioned. It is true that he said that Christianity was not a doctrine, and that he wrote no formal theology. Insisting that his role was that of a layman, the most he claimed was that some of his writings were specifically ‘for edification’. At the same time, he strenuously opposed the opinion that Christian belief could stand without a very definite content, pointing out that the inwardness demanded of the individual presupposed knowledge of the ‘objectively dogmatic’: in faith the how could not be separated from the what.

“Life is a woman”: Gender, sex and sexuality in Bartók's The Wooden Prince

2007 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 163-170
Author(s):  
Stephen Kilpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Sex And Sexuality ◽  
Gyorgy Lukacs

Abstract This paper is a reassessment of Béla Bartók's The Wooden Prince, in light of the attitudes and beliefs of Bartók's contemporaries, in particular György Lukács, and the Ballet's librettist, Béla Balázs. Particular emphasis is given to Lukács's relationship with Irma Seidler and Balázs through examination of Lukács's essay, “Søren Kierkegaard and Regine Olsen” — a source overlooked in previous studies of this work. After analysing the views of Bartók's milieu regarding love and relationships, I conclude that the ballet's message is much more pessimistic than previously thought. This study places The Wooden Prince, which has been compared unfavourably with Bartók's other two stage works, alongside Duke Bluebeard's Castle as its companion in both musical and intellectual depth, and confirms Kodály's view that the ballet is the Allegro which balances the “desolate Adagio of the opera.”

scholarly journals Existential Psychology & Buddha Philosophy: It's Relevance in Nurturing a Healthy Mind

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 22-28
Author(s):  
Tapas Kumar Aich
Keyword(s):  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Cognitive Distortion ◽  
Humanistic Psychology ◽  
Existential Psychology ◽  
Phenomenological Psychology ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Western Psychology ◽  
The Individual

The term "existentialism" have been coined by the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel in the mid-1940s and adopted by Jean-Paul Sartre. The label has been applied retrospectively to philosophers like Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers and Søren Kierkegaard and other 19th and 20th century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, generally held that the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the conditions of existence of the individual person and his or her emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts. The early 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, posthumously regarded as ‘the father of existentialism’, maintained that the individual solely has the responsibilities of giving one's own life meaning and living that life passionately and sincerely, in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation, and boredom. Over the last century, experts have written on many commonalities between Buddhism and various branches of modern western psychology like phenomenological psychology, psychoanalytical psychotherapy, humanistic psychology, cognitive psychology and existential psychology. In comparison to other branches of psychology, less have been studied and talked on the commonalities between Buddhist philosophy and modern existential psychology that have been propagated in the west. Buddha said that the life is ‘suffering’. Existential psychology speaks of ontological anxiety (dread, angst). Buddha said that ‘suffering is due to attachment’. Existential psychology also has some similar concepts. We cling to things in the hopes that they will provide us with a certain benefit. Buddha said that ‘suffering can be extinguished’. The Buddhist concept of nirvana is quite similar to the existentialists' freedom. Freedom has, in fact, been used in Buddhism in the context of freedom from rebirth or freedom from the effects of karma. For the existentialist, freedom is a fact of our being, one which we often ignore. Finally, Buddha says that ‘there is a way to extinguish suffering’. For the existential psychologist, the therapist must take an assertive role in helping the client become aware of the reality of his or her suffering and its roots. As a practising psychiatrist, clinician, therapist we often face patients with symptoms of depression where aetiology is not merely a reactive one, not an interpersonal conflict, not simply a cognitive distortion! Patients mainly present with some form of personal ‘existential crisis’. Unless we understand and address these existential questions, we probably, will fail to alleviate the symptoms of depression, by merely prescribing drugs, in these patients! DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jpan.v3i3.11836  

scholarly journals Sin, Despair, and the Other: The Works of Soren Kierkegaard

Elements ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott M. O'Leary
Keyword(s):  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
The Other ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Pervasive Loss

Soren Kierkegaard, the mystic existentialist, questions the role of despairing human life in his celebrated text, <em><span style="font-family: mceinline;">The <span style="font-family: mceinline;">Sickness Unto Death</span></span></em>. In a disquitision both persuasive and troubling, he insists that despair, far from being a state of consciousness which should be avoided, is in fact a spiritual mood that brings the individual dialectically closer to the divine. But how can we accept the paradoxes of faith that cause such terrible despair? Our inability to come to terms with the elements of Christianity that Kierkegaard himself calls offensive, such as original sin and God's total authority over man, lead to a pervasive loss of self-consciousness that Kierkegaard sees as the epidemic of modern civilization. Like a physician, Kierkegaard diagnoses our sickness, and his prescription for recovery is paradoxical and provoking.

scholarly journals Hellmut Toftdahl: Kierkegaard først - og Grundtvig så.

1969 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-102
Author(s):  
William Michelsen
Keyword(s):  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Great Part ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Usual Sense ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Individual

Hellmut Toftdahl, Kierkegaard først - og Grundtvig så. ( “First K. - and then G.”) Sammenligning og vurdering (København 1969)Reviewed by William Michelsen.The contrast between Søren Kierkegaard and N. F. S. Grundtvig is well known. But there is a tendency to forget the important similarity that both of them opposed that reconciliation of idealistic philosophy with Christian theology which in their age prevented a realistic conception of Christianity. Grundtvig’s reaction differs from that of Kierkegaard, however, inasmuch as it does not formulate any philosophical alternative in the usual sense. Instead Grundtvig gives a series of critical presentations of world history, which express his outlook on life in a way that differs widely from the dominant contemporary philosophy.The author of the present work now asks himself the following question: What does Grundtvig look like if seen from Kierkegaard’s point of view? His answer to this question is characterized by a combination of sobriety and engagement which will make it no easy matter to ignore his treatment of the question. In addition, the work places Grundtvig where he belongs in the cultural debate of today. By modern man Grundtvig will naturally be approached via Kierkegaard. Toftdahl’s final result, however—as expressed in the title of the book—connects with the self-criticism which may be deduced from the work of Kierkegaard: he confines the individual in the task of finding an ego thereby tearing it away from the community with other human beings.Thus Kierkegaard abandons humanism, according to Toftdahl. In view of this conclusion one lacks a closer confrontation with K. E. Løgstrup (Opgør med Kierkegaard, Kbh. 1967) and G. Malantschuk (Dialektik og eksistens hos Søren Kierkegaard, Kbh. 1968). Toftdahl follows Kierkegaard a long way; even to the extent of tentatively considering Grundtvig’s psyche from the point of view described in Begrebet Angest. - There is no doubt that “demonization” played a great part also in Grundtvig’s outlook on man, only in a quite different sense. Even during his attacks of mental disease (especially in 1810 and 1867) Grundtvig’s realization of his own condition was so clear and pronounced that it seems unreasonable to regard him as a victim of the kind of psychic confinement delineated in Begrebet Angest.In his draft of Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift Kierkegaard has limited his disagreement with Grundtvig to the argument that he is unable to think dialectically. Kierkegaard is probably right here. On the other hand, Grundtvig’s biblical view of history which subjected the imperfectibility of human knowledge to a paradoxical belief in God’s omnipotence seems to be confused by Kierkegaard with the contemporary historical outlook on the Bible which undermined the basis of traditional Christianity. But as addressed to Grundtvigianism the sharp formulation in Kierkegaard’s Philosophiske Smuler was nevertheless called for, and Toftdahl’s treatment of this principal work is in my opinion admirable.The characterization of Kierkegaard’s “aesthetic stage” makes fascinating reading, but one would hardly find anything similar in Grundtvig or the first Grundtvigians. It is a chief motif in Danish literature, however, that the Grundtvigians of later generations were attacked by this “romantic disease”. But one cannot infer that this starting-point is common to all mankind. If despair was known by Grundtvig and the authors who came within his sphere, they did not know the tedium vitae which characterizes modern man. But when the invalidity of all proofs of God’s existence was revealed by Kant, Grundtvig held on to Voltaire’s standpoint, deism. An atheist he never was. Accordingly, his basic problem was no “to choose or not to choose”, Toftdahl’s precise formulation of Kierkegaard’s fundamental problem. For the free choice (liberum arbitrium) was no illusion to Grundtvig. According to him man was left free, through his creation by God, to choose from among many possibilities (Kort Begreb af Verdens Krønike I ( 1814), pp. 14- 17). At this point Grundtvig follows Augustine, who is rejected by Luther. Kierkegaard describes the view as “rubbish”, thereby rejecting not only Grundtvig, but also Leibniz.Toftdahl demonstrates—especially in a chapter about Martin A. Hansen— how essential answers may be provided to meet the criticism advanced against Grundtvig by Kierkegaard. More answers might be added, however. Grundtvig’s religious crisis of 1810 had been preceded by an aesthetic as well as an ethical stage in his life. And apart from the religious “leap” the crisis was followed by a practical life as a clergyman, hymn writer, and educationalist. In Grundtvig “Religiousness A” came after “Religiousness B” which goes some way to explain the irritation of Kierkegaard. He blamed Grundtvig especially for remaining within the State Church. But it appears from Toftdahl’s book that Kierkegaard was the owner of Grundtvig’s Udsigt over Verdens-Krøniken ( 1817), where Wesley is severely criticized for maintaining to have been expelled from the English State Church. Grundtvig here declares it to be the duty of a Christian preacher to remain within the Church “until one is expelled”, if the preaching is to remain “the work of God”. There is no doubt that this historical example—as a contrast to that of Luther—meant a warning to Grundtvig throughout his life.

Ética, alteridade e educação existencial em Kierkegaard e Paulo Freire

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-123
Author(s):  
Jorge Miranda Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Ethical Approach ◽  
Belo Horizonte ◽  
The Individual

Resumo: Esse artigo apresenta uma abordagem existencial e ética entre o filósofo dinamarquês Søren Kierkegaard e o educador brasileiro Paulo Freire. Partindo dessas duas referências, tratamos a possibilidade de uma educação ético-existencial de forma crítica diante do debate pela liberdade do indivíduo tendo como perspectiva a existência-ética no engajamento e no compromisso para com a pessoa humana. A abordagem deste artigo envolve ainda a educação diante da subjetividade e sua recepção social, cultural e política, tendo em vista o contexto de nosso tempo.Palavras-chave: Educação. Subjetividade. Liberdade. Kierkegaard. Paulo Freire. Abstract: This article presents an existential and ethical approach between the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Starting from these two references, we deal with the possibility of an ethical-existential education in a critical way before the debate for the freedom of the individual, taking into account ethical existence in the engagement and commitment to the human person. The approach of this article also involves the education before the subjectivity and its social, cultural and political reception, taking into account the context of our time.Keywords: Education. Subjectivity. Freedom.  Kierkegaard. Paulo Freire. REFERÊNCIASAZEVEDO, Jose Andrade. Fundamentos filosóficos da pedagogia de Paulo Freire. Akrópolis, Umuarama, v. 18, n. 1, p. 37-47, jan./mar. 2010.FERNET-BETANCOURT, Raúl. Ética intercultural. (Re) leituras do pensamento latino-americano. São Leopoldo, RS: Nova Harmonia, 2010.FREIRE, Paulo. Educação como prática da liberdade. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1967._______. Educação e mudança. 12. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1979._______. Ação cultural para a liberdade. 5. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1981._______. Pedagogia do Oprimido. 45. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 2005._______. Pedagogia da autonomia. 37. ed. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1996._______. Política e educação: ensaios. 5. ed. São Paulo: Cortez, 2001._______. Pedagogia da Indignação: cartas pedagógicas e outros ensaios. São Paulo: Editora UNESP, 2000.FREIRE, Paulo. Pedagogia da esperança: um reencontro com a pedagogia do oprimido. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1992.KIERKEGAARD, Søren. A doença para a morte. In: Os pensadores. São Paulo: Editora Abril, 1974._______. Diário. Brescia: Morcelliana, 1980. 12 volumes._______. Gli Atti dell’amore. Milano: Rusconi, 1983._______. As obras do amor: algumas considerações cristãs em forma de discurso. Tradução de Álvaro Valls. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2005._______. La dialetica della comunicazione etica ed etico-religiosa. Roma: Edizioni Logos, 1979._______. Due epoche. Roma: Parrini, 1994._______. O conceito de angústia: uma simples reflexão psicológico-demonstrativa direcionada ao problema dogmático do pecado hereditário de Vigilius Haufniensis. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2010._______. Migalhas filosóficas: ou um bocadinho de filosofia de João Climacus. Tradução de Álvaro Valls, e Ernani Reichmann. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1995._______. Post-scriptum conclusivo não cientifico. In: Opere. Milano: Sansoni Editori, 1993._______.  Enten-eller. 6. ed. Milano: Adeplhi Edizioni, 2001_______. Três discursos edificantes de 1849. 3a edição. Traduzido e editado por Henri Nicolay Levinspuhl. Rio de Janeiro: Edição do autor, 2001b. _______. O Instante. Genova: Casa Editrice Marietti, 2001c.LEVINAS, Emmanuel. Liberté et Commandement. Paris: Fata Morgana, 1994.LEVINAS, Emmanuel. Entre nós: ensaios sobre a subjetividade. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1997._______.  Totalidade e infinito. Lisboa: Edições 70, 2000._______. De Deus que vem à idéia. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2002._______. Autrement qu’être ou au-delá de l’essence. Paris: LGF, 2008.REDIN, Euclides; STRECK Danilo; ZITKOSKI, Jaime Jose. Dicionário Paulo Freire. 2. ed. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, 2010.REICH, Wilhelm. Psicologia de massa do fascismo. Porto: Publicações Escorpião, 1974.RICOUER, Paul. O si-mesmo como um outro. Campinas, SP: Papirus, 1991.SIDEKUM, Antonio. Interpelação ética. São Leopoldo, RS: Nova Harmonia, 2003. 

Ethical Conduct in the Present Age: The Case of Søren Kierkegaard

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Tester
Keyword(s):  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Ethical Conduct ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Søren Kierkegaard is widely read in the disciplinary spheres of philosophy and theology. However, the sociological resonance of some of his work has been overlooked. This paper seeks to introduce aspects of Kierkegaard's account of ‘the present age’ to a sociological audience. Kierkegaard's concerns are explored in the context of themes and issues raised by Max Weber. The paper has two themes. First, the paper uses the example of Kierkegaard to explore the relationship of the Protestant Ethic (which is identified as a mode of the production of the personality of the individual) with the Spirit of Capitalism (which is identified as a life order). Second, the paper outlines aspects of Kierkegaard's diagnosis of ‘the present age’ which might be of interest to a sociological audience.

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