Kierkegaard: Anxiety, Repetition and Contemporaneity

216 Pages·2006·0.53 MB·English

by  Vasiliki Tsakiri

Kierkegaard
Anxiety, Repetition and Contemporaneity
Vasiliki Tsakiri
Kierkegaard
RenewingPhilosophy
GeneralEditor:GaryBanham
Titlesinclude:
KyriakiGoudeli
CHALLENGESTOGERMANIDEALISM
Schelling,FichteandKant
KeekokLee
PHILOSOPHYANDREVOLUTIONSINGENETICS
DeepScienceandDeepTechnology
JillMarsden
AFTERNIETZSCHE
SimonO’Sullivan
ARTENCOUNTERSDELEUZEANDGUATTARI
ThoughtBeyondRepresentation
CelineSurprenant
FREUD’SMASSPSYCHOLOGY
AlbertoToscano
PHILOSOPHYANDINDIVIDUATIONBETWEENKANTANDDELEUZE
TheTheatreofProduction
VasilikiTsakiri
KIERKEGAARD
Anxiety,RepetitionandContemporaneity
PhilipWalsh
SKEPTICISM,MODERNITYANDCRITICALTHEORY
MartinWeatherston
HEIDEGGER’SINTERPRETATIONOFKANT
Categories,ImaginationandTemporality
RenewingPhilosophy
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Anxiety, Repetition and Contemporaneity
Vasiliki Tsakiri
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Contents
SeriesEditor’sPreface ix
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xii
‘TakingNotice’:AnIntroduction 1
Part I Anxiety and Individuality 17
1 TheToposofAnxiety 19
2 Anxiety,DeathandtheLeap 30
Part II Time, History and the Fall: St Augustine
and Kant 53
3 StAugustineonFallenandRedeemedTime 57
3.1 Onpre-fallentime 57
3.2 Theconceptionofhumanorpsychologicaltime 64
4 History,Fall,Freedom:ReflectionsonKant 68
Part III Freedom and Eternity: Schelling’s Saga 85
5 Schelling’sConceptionofFreedomandIdentity 87
6 Theo-cosmo-gony:TheEternalPastandHumanFreedom 98
6.1 Godandtheinexpressible 98
6.2 Beforegoodandevil:onhumanfreedom 117
Part IV Kierkegaard’s Creed of Faith:
Contemporaneity and Repetition 125
7 Repetition:ATranscendentMovementtowardsFaith? 127
7.1 TheBookofJob:aprototypeofhumanordeal 135
7.2 Silentsacrifice:thestoryofAbraham 137
8 DoubleContemporaneity,ortheParadoxofRepetition 148
vii
viii Kierkegaard
ConcludingThoughts 163
Postscript:‘TakingNotice’/OnTarkovsky’sSacrifice 165
Notes 171
Bibliography 189
Index 195
Series Editor’s Preface
The series Renewing Philosophy was established with a two-fold aim: to
promoteinvestigationofthenatureofmodernityandtodemonstratea
relationshipofphilosophytocontemporaneity.Thebookthatfollowsis
unusualinaddressingbothoftheseaims,aimsthatordinarilydiverge.
Aninvestigationofmodernitycouldtakemanyforms,butprimeamong
recentcontendershavebeenfocusesonaestheticsandtheshapeofpolit-
icalthought.However,asisbecomingincreasinglyobvious,thenature
oftheplaceofreligionintheshapingofmodernityalsorequiresinvest-
igation as it impacts in many respects on the type and nature of the
human relations that are possible. Not only does religion seem central
toaperceptionoftheunderstandingoftheconditionofhumanreflec-
tion, but it seems particularly important in the context of modernity.
One of the founding events of modernity is surely the Reformation
andwithitasharpbreakwiththetraditionofEuropeanChristendom.
The nature of this break is one, as many contemporary thinkers have
recently been emphasizing, that has wide implications for European
self-understanding, not only in the realm of theology, but also in the
interpretationofethics.
Whilst reflection on the place of religion in the formation of
modernity has recently begun again, there is considerable confusion
aboutthedistinctionbetweentheReformationandtheEnlightenment,
adistinctionofseriousimport.IftheReformationmarksapointofspir-
itual crisis, it is none the less centred on the struggle for the means to
renew spiritual life. Arguably, by contrast, the Enlightenment marks a
point at which the nature of human self-understanding is reshaped in
the image not of an engagement with spiritual forces but instead with
anengagementwiththeresourcesofreasonitself,mostnotablyinthe
system of Immanuel Kant. What this suggests is a comprehension of
the shape of modernity that takes seriously the place of religion in its
formation is one that points us to two focal points that indicate to us
two seriously distinct futures and whilst the emphasis on Enlighten-
mentreasonhasreceivedmuchattentioninrecentyears,thealternative
path of Reformation recovery of the spiritual has been comparatively
neglected.
The key philosophical figure who engaged in the attempt to retrieve
the Reformed element of modernity is the seriously Protestant Søren
ix