Kierkegaard, Communication, and Virtue

Mark A. Tietjen

Description

Authorship and communication of ethical and religious ideas

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In contrast to recent postmodern and deconstructionist readings, Mark A. Tietjen believes that the purpose behind Kierkegaard's writings is the moral and religious improvement of the reader. Tietjen defends Kierkegaard against claims that certain features of his works, such as pseudonymity, indirect communication, irony, and satire are self-deceived or deceitful. Kierkegaard, Communication, and Virtue reveals how they are directly related to the virtues or moral issues being discussed. In fact, Tietjen argues, the manner of presentation is a critical element of the philosophical message being conveyed. Reading broadly in Kierkegaard's writings, he develops a hermeneutics of trust that fully illustrates Kierkegaard's aim to evoke faith in his reader.

Acknowledgements
Sigla
Introduction: Philosophy and Edification

Part I. Jest and/or Earnestness
1. Blunt Reading
2. Alternatives to Différance
3. Communicating Capability

Part II. Suspicion or Trust
4. Deconstructing The Point of View
5. Trusting The Point of View

Part III. Faith and Virtue
6. The Pseudonymous Dialectic of Faith, I
7. The Pseudonymous Dialectic of Faith, II
Conclusions: Kierkegaard, Virtue, and Edification

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Religious
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy of religion

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 12 juin 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253008718
• Langue: English

Extrait

KIERKEGAARD, COMMUNICATION, AND VIRTUE
INDIANA SERIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Merold Westphal, Editor
KIERKEGAARD, COMMUNICATION, AND VIRTUE
Authorship as Edification
Mark A. Tietjen
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931
2013 by Mark A. Tietjen
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tietjen, Mark A.
Kierkegaard, communication, and virtue : authorship as edification / Mark A. Tietjen.
pages cm. - (Indiana series in the philosophy of religion)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-00854-1 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-00862-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-00871-8 (ebook) 1. Kierkegaard, S ren, 1813-1855. I. Title.
B4377.T54 2013
198 .9-dc23
2013002203
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
Contents
Acknowledgments
Sigla
Introduction: Philosophy and Edification
Part I. Jest and/or Earnestness
1 Blunt Reading
2 Alternatives to Diff rance
3 Communicating Capability
Part II. Suspicion or Trust
4 Deconstructing The Point of View
5 Trusting The Point of View
Part III. Faith and Virtue
6 The Pseudonymous Dialectic of Faith, I
7 The Pseudonymous Dialectic of Faith, II
Conclusions: Kierkegaard, Virtue, and Edification
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
T HIS BOOK is a result of the confluence of many lives commonly pursuing the joys of learning and friendship. I should first thank James Loder, who introduced me to the thought of Kierkegaard and whose powerful influence on several generations of students and ministers at Princeton Theological Seminary continues to this day. My interest in Kierkegaard led me to Baylor University, in large part because of its 2012 vision that would attract two Kierkegaard scholars, Robert Roberts and Stephen Evans. Their knowledge and especially their wisdom have been essential to my maturation as a philosopher and as a person. I am grateful also to Margaret Watkins, Michael Foley, and John Davenport, who made available to me their expertise. In 2005 and in 2010 I was privileged to receive summer fellowships from the Hong Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College, and much of the work in this book was begun while at St. Olaf, with the kind and generous support of Gordon Marino and Cynthia Lund. Thanks also go to my colleagues in the Philosophy Program at the University of West Georgia and to George Kieh, from whom I received a College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Research Grant that enabled further research.
There are many others-graduate student colleagues at Baylor, commentators at conferences, West Georgia undergraduates-whose interaction has in different ways contributed to the development of the ideas in this book. I am grateful in particular to my good friend Zach Manis, who has over the years read earlier versions of chapters of the book and always offered thoughtful feedback. Roberts Perkins, editor of the International Kierkegaard Commentary series from which some of the material in this book is reprinted, has served as a kind of mentor to me, as he has to so many young Kierkegaard scholars. Sylvia Walsh improved this manuscript first by pointing me to Kierkegaard s lectures on communication and second, along with Merold Westphal, by reviewing this manuscript for Indiana. Along with Merold, both Dee Mortensen and Sarah Jacobi of Indiana University Press have in a most competent and patient way guided me in the process of taking a manuscript and making a book.
The broader story of my journey to Kierkegaard is the story of my life, and those positive influences are far too many to enumerate. Let me briefly acknowledge my entire family, especially my parents, Tom and Alice, whose lives and words have edified me all along the way, and my wife, Amy, who, like so many spouses, endured much trouble and inconvenience to see me flourish. She has been most supportive and gracious.
Finally, I would like to express gratitude to the editors and publishers who have granted permission to reprint in revised forms and portions the following articles and book chapters:
To Believe or Not to Believe: Toward a Hermeneutic of Trust, in International Kierkegaard Commentary , vol. 22: The Point of View , ed. Robert L. Perkins (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2010), 78-103.
Kierkegaard and the Classical Virtue Tradition, Faith and Philosophy 27:2 (April 2010): 153-73.
Indirect Communication, and the Special Case of Christian Communication, in Kierkegaard and Christianity (Acta Kierkegaardiana, vol. 3), ed. Andrew Burgess, Abraham Khan, Roman Kr lik, Peter ajda, and Jamie Turnbull (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), 218-28.
What The Book on Adler Can Teach about the Author and the Authorship, in International Kierkegaard Commentary , vol. 24: The Book on Adler , ed. Robert L. Perkins (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2008), 97-120.
Sigla AN Armed Neutrality . See PV. BA The Book on Adler . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. CA The Concept of Anxiety . Edited and translated by Reidar Thomte. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. CD Christian Discourses and The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. CI The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. COR The Corsair Affair . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982. CUP Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments. Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. EO Either/Or (2 vols.). Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987. EUD Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. FSE For Self-Examination; Judge for Yourself! Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. FT Fear and Trembling . Edited by C. Stephen Evans and Sylvia Walsh. Translated by Sylvia Walsh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. JFY Judge for Yourself! See FSE. JP S ren Kierkegaard s Journals and Papers (7 vols.). Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967-78. OMWA On My Work as an Author . See PV. P Prefaces; Writing Sampler . Edited and Translated by Todd W. Nichol. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. PC Practice in Christianity . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. PF Philosophical Fragments . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. PV The Point of View for My Work as an Author , The Single Individual, On My Work as an Author , and Armed Neutrality . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. SLW Stages on Life s Way . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. SUD The Sickness unto Death . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. TA Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age. A Literary Review . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978. TM The Moment and Late Writings . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. UDVS Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. WA Without Authority . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. WL Works of Love . Edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
KIERKEGAARD, COMMUNICATION, AND VIRTUE
Introduction
Philosophy and Edification
T ODAY S MORAL PHILOSOPHER operates more like a physics scholar than a physician. The physics scholar is interested in truth about the physical world, including the natural laws that give shape to a human s experience of the world. The physics scholar, however, does not prescribe how the human ought to operate in the world, though I suppose there would be recommendations made for taking the law of gravity seriously. The physics scholar might engage in logical, inductive inquiry and draw conclusions on the basis of observations, but the conclusions derived would not serve as the basis for how humans ought to behave physically in the world. On the contrary, the physician works toward the improvement or correction of one constituent of the physical world, namely the human. The physician is also concerned with truth, for example, a true diagnosis of a human ailment. But the work of the physician goes further than inquiry. It exte