Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks, Volume 1: Journals AA-DD

610 Pages·2007·57.21 MB·English

by  Søren Kierkegaard

KIERKEGAARD’S JOURNALS
AND NOTEBOOKS
BRUCE H. KIRMMSE, GENERAL EDITOR

KIERKEGAARD’S JOURNALS
AND NOTEBOOKS
VOLUME 1
Journals AA–DD
Edited by
Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, David Kangas,
Bruce H. Kirmmse, George Pattison, Vanessa Rumble,
and K. Brian So¨derquist
Published in cooperation with
the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre
Copenhagen
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
KIERKEGAARD’S
JOURNALS and NOTEBOOKS
EditorialBoard
NielsJørgenCappelørn,AlastairHannay,DavidKangas,BruceH.Kirmmse,
GeorgePattison,VanessaRumble,andK.BrianSo¨derquist
incooperationwiththeSørenKierkegaardResearchCentre,Copenhagen
Volume1,JournalsAA–DD
Originallypublishedunderthetitles
SørenKierkegaardsSkrifter:17JournalerneAA,BB,CC,DDand
SørenKierkegaardsSkrifter:K17KommentarertilJournalerneAA,BB,CC,DD
©2000bytheSørenKierkegaardResearchCentreFoundation,Copenhagen
TheSørenKierkegaardResearchCentreFoundationatCopenhagenUniversityhasbeen
establishedwithsupportfromtheDanishNationalResearchFoundation.
EnglishtranslationCopyright©2007by
theSørenKierkegaardResearchCentreFoundation,Copenhagen,and
theHowardandEdnaHongKierkegaardLibrary,St.OlafCollege,Northfield,Minnesota
Requestsforpermissiontoreproducematerialfromthisworkshouldbesentto
Permissions,PrincetonUniversityPress
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IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,3MarketPlace,
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LibraryofCongressControlNumber2004117202
ISBN-13:978-0-691-09222-5
ISBN-10:0-691-09222-2
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThepublicationofKierkegaard’sJournalsandNotebooksissupportedbygrantsfrom
theDanishMinistryofCulture,theUnitedStatesNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities,
andConnecticutCollege.
Anyviews,findings,conclusions,orrecommendationsexpressedinthispublicationdonot
necessarilyreflectthoseoftheNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities.
Kierkegaard’sJournalsandNotebooksisbasedonSørenKierkegaardsSkrifter,whichispublished
withthesupportofgrantsfromtheDanishNationalResearchFoundationand
theDanishMinistryofCulture.
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1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
CONTENTS
Introduction IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII vii
Journal AA IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 1
Journal BB IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 51
Journal CC IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 137
Journal DD IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 203
Notes for Journal AA IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 291
Notes for Journal BB IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 359
Notes for Journal CC IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 425
Notes for Journal DD IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 477
MapsIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 561
Calendar IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 569
ConcordanceIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 579

vii
Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks
Introduction to the English Language Edition
Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks is based on Søren Kierkegaards
Skrifter (hereafter, SKS) [Søren Kierkegaard’s Writings] (Copen-
hagen: Gad, 1997– ), which is a Danish scholarly, annotated edi-
tionofeverythingwrittenbySørenKierkegaard(1813–55).When
completed SKS will comprise fifty-five volumes. SKS divides the
entirety of Kierkegaard’s output into four categories: 1) works
published by Kierkegaard during his lifetime (e.g., such well-
knowntitlesasEither/Or,FearandTrembling,andTheSicknessunto
Death);2)worksthatlayready—orsubstantiallyready—forpub-
lication at the time of Kierkegaard’s death, but which he did not
publish in his lifetime (e.g., titles such as The Book on Adler, The
Point of View for My Work as an Author, and Judge for Yourself!); 3)
journals, notebooks, excerpts, and loose papers, collectively en-
titled Kierkegaard’s “journals and notebooks”; and 4) letters and
biographicaldocuments.Clearly,Kierkegaardwasnotonlyapro-
lific author, he was also a prolific writer, and his literary activity
found expression not only in his published works but also in the
massofwritingsthatwerenotpublishedinhislifetime.Itisthese
writings,thethirdcategorylistedabove,collectivelyentitledKier-
kegaard’sJournalsandNotebooks(hereafter,KJN)thatconstitutethe
materialofthepresentEnglishlanguageedition.
I. Danish Editions of Kierkegaard’s Posthumous Writings
InNovember1855,shortlyafterKierkegaard’sdeath,hisnephew
HenrikLundvisitedhisapartmentaccompaniedbyaclerknamed
NørregaardfromtheCopenhagenProbateCourt.WhatLundand
Nørregaard encountered when they entered Kierkegaard’s apart-
mentwas“agreatquantityofpaper,mostlymanuscripts,located
invariousplaces.”1Lundviewedhimselfnotmerelyasarelative
1 Flemming Christian Nielsen, Alt blev godt betalt. Auktionen over Søren
Kierkegaardsindbo[EverythingFetchedaGoodPrice:TheAuctionofSøren
Kierkegaard’sPersonalEffects](Viborg:Holkenfeldt,2000),p.7.
viii Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks
butalsoasadiscipleofhisfamousandcontroversialuncle,andhe
initially believed that he had been called to sort through and
cataloguethemassofKierkegaardianpapers,withaneyetotheir
eventual publication. Lund proceeded systematically, probably
beginning as early as the end of November 1855, and during
DecemberofthatyearandthefirsthalfofJanuary1856heworked
hiswaythroughthegreattroveofpapersandmanuscripts.Asthe
work progressed, Lund noted where each pile, case, box, roll,
folder,andnotebooklaywhenKierkegaardhaddied,e.g.,“inthe
desk,”“inthelowerdeskdrawer,”“intheleft-handcase,”or“in
thesecondchestofdrawers,‘B,’topdrawer,totheleft.”1Andhe
took careful note of which pages, scraps, and slips of paper were
foundtogetherwithwhichothers.AlthoughLundeventuallytired
of the task and left the job of publication to others, he is the one
who has provided the earliest account of Kierkegaard’s papers,
and he compiled a valuable and quite detailed—though never
completed—inventoryofKierkegaard’sposthumouswritings,en-
titling it “Catalogue of the Manuscripts of S. Kierkegaard, Re-
cordedafterHisDeath.”
After a rather vagabond existence, these papers eventually
found their way to the residence of Kierkegaard’s elder brother,
Peter Christian, bishop of Aalborg in Jutland, Denmark, and in
February1865theywereentrustedtoHansPeterBarfod,aformer
newspaper editor to whom the bishop had assigned the task of
“examining,registering,etc.Søren’spapers.”2Muchofwhatcon-
frontedBarfod(andbeforehim,Lund)inthewelterofpaperswas
ofcoursedraftsandothermaterialsrelatedtoworksthatKierke-
gaard had published during his lifetime and to works that lay
readyoralmostreadyforpublicationatthetimeofhisdeath(that
is,theabove-mentionedmaterialsthatconstitutecategories1and
2ofSKS),pluslettersandotherbiographicaldocuments(category
4ofSKS).Buttherewasalsoanothergroupofmaterials,anenor-
mousquantityofwritingthatdidnotfitintotheothercategories,
an amorphous mass of journals, notebooks, and loose sheets,
pages,andscrapsofpaper(category3ofSKS).
Facedwiththisdauntingpileofpaper,butarmedwithLund’s
above-mentioned“Catalogue,”Barfodplungedintothepapersto
construct his own inventory, and in November 1865, ten years
1 NielsJørgenCappelørn,JoakimGarff,andJohnnyKondrup,WrittenImages,
trans.BruceH.Kirmmse(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,2003),p.11.
2 Carl Weltzer, Peter og Søren Kierkegaard [Peter and Søren Kierkegaard]
(Copenhagen:Gad,1936),p.311.
Introduction to the English Language Edition ix
after Kierkegaard’s death, Barfod completed his own “Catalogue
ofthePapersFoundaftertheDeathofSørenAabyeKierkegaard.”
Barfod’s “Catalogue” had 472 numbered items, and up through
number382itsenumerationwasidenticaltothatofLund’s“Cata-
logue,” which itself appeared in Barfod’s as number 473. Two
yearslater,intheautumnof1867,aftermuchhesitation,BishopP.
C.KierkegaardgaveBarfod“afreehandtodealwithSørenKier-
kegaard’sliteraryremains”1andindicatedhisintentionthatthey
bepublished.
Barfod set to work preparing the material for publication.
Though not a trained philologist, Barfod (who has been much
malignedforreasonsthatwillbecomeevident)wasmerelyacting
inaccordancewiththestandardpracticeofhisdaywhenhewrote
hisowncorrections,notes,andprinter’sinstructionsonthepages
of Kierkegaard’s journals, after which he sent them off to the
printer. Sometimes he cut manuscript pages into several pieces,
rearranged the order of the entries, and apparently glued them
onto larger sheets of paper before sending them to the printer.
Some of the original manuscripts themselves were lost—thrown
away by the printer or by Barfod. Thus, some archival materials
have been damaged, and others—including, for example, Journal
AA, which contained the famous line about “a truth for which to
liveanddie”—havebeenalmostcompletelylost,sothattheonly
sourcewehavefortheseentriesaretheversionsinBarfod’spub-
lished edition, or in a number of cases, merely the fragmentary
headwordslistedinBarfod’s“Catalogue.”OfthetenjournalsAA
through KK from the period 1833–46, only the final one, KK, is
completely intact today. For all the remaining volumes—some
entirelydismantled,somestillintheiroriginalbindings—varying
numbers of pages have been lost.As has been noted, Barfod was
not particularly culpable, for he shared the view of his times,
accordingtowhichliteraryremainshadservedtheirpurposeafter
theyhadbeenexaminedandtheircontentspublished.
Barfod’sprincipalresponsibilitywastoserveBishopP.C.Kier-
kegaardassecretaryandtreasureroftheAalborgdiocese,andhe
wasthusunabletoworkfull-timeonSørenKierkegaard’sposthu-
mouspapers.Therefore,eventhoughBarfodreceivedpermission
to publish portions of Kierkegaard’s papers in 1867, the first vol-
ume of his Af Søren Kierkegaards efterladte Papirer (hereafter, EP)
1 SørenKierkegaard,AfSørenKierkegaardsEfterladtePapirer[FromSørenKier-
kegaard’sPosthumousPapers],ed.H.P.Barfod,vol.I(Copenhagen:C.A.
Reitzel,1869),p.ix.