Philosophical reading?

[speed]

Check this one out:

"In a theatre it happened that a fire started off stage. The clown came out to tell the audience. They thought it was a joke and applauded. He told them again, and they became still more hilarious. This is the way, I suppose, that the world will be destroyed--amid the universal hilarity of wits and wags who think it is all a joke"

Ah, this is why I feel fear and loathing towards his ideas. Too damn serious. Damn devout protestant upbringing. And he's implicating me here!

Life without fun and humor, pleasure and the free pursuit of knowledge is how the world will be destroyed. And lemme tell you, it seems society is attempting to do this now. A new dark ages. We lost humor except for specialized places and times; the free pursuit of knowledge has been replaced by standardization and specialization, fun is commercialized and manufactured, and pleasure has become a simulcra of the real thing (porn, tv cooking shows, etc). Perhaps this is going too far, but in every study, through every measure, Happiness in America and Britain has been halved in just thirty years. And I know of no other path towards happiness but through these aforementioned things. Now thats troublesome.

 

[JColtrane]

Wow, haha, that is kind of ironic because I think you took that way too seriously. It's supposed to be funny. Humor is actually quite central to Kierkegaard's thought (just look at his dissertation-The Concept of Irony); if you didn't get this from reading Fear and Trembling and Either/Or, you may want to read them again.

Anyways, Displasmata is at the beginning of Either/Or, so I guess you have read it anyways.

 

[speed]

Wow, haha, that is kind of ironic because I think you took that way too seriously. It's supposed to be funny. Humor is actually quite central to Kierkegaard's thought (just look at his dissertation-The Concept of Irony); if you didn't get this from reading Fear and Trembling and Either/Or, you may want to read them again.

Anyways, Displasmata is at the beginning of Either/Or, so I guess you have read it anyways.

Haha, yeah I read it 10 years ago or more. I always remember him being serious however. And I also remember it containing the same ideas as the first part of Notes From the Underground.

 

[JColtrane]

I definitely agree with you though that he has anti-pleasure tendancies; a lot of my thesis has to do with the ways in which he is dualistic

 

[speed]

I definitely agree with you though that he has anti-pleasure tendancies; a lot of my thesis has to do with the ways in which he is dualistic

So are you a doctoral candidate? Masters? In Philosophy?

 

[JColtrane]

Actually, I'm just an undergrad, but I am in my university's honor program, so I am writing a thesis for that.
The prof who's my director, though, wrote his dissertation on Kierkegaard's ethics and has been published on S.K. several times, including twice in the International Kierkegaard Commentary series. He's really a great guy, and definitely knows his stuff.

 

[speed]

Actually, I'm just an undergrad, but I am in my university's honor program, so I am writing a thesis for that.
The prof who's my director, though, wrote his dissertation on Kierkegaard's ethics and has been published on S.K. several times, including twice in the International Kierkegaard Commentary series. He's really a great guy, and definitely knows his stuff.

huh. So, are you interested in a philosophy career in academia, or do you plan on doing other things?

And why Kierkegaard? Im curious. I like him, but I wonder why someone would wish to dedicate so much time to one man's writing.

 

[Cythraul]

Sometimes people find a certain philosopher interesting enough to spend a lot of time studying his/her work. I once spent an entire semester on just W.V. Quine.

 

[speed]

Sometimes people find a certain philosopher interesting enough to spend a lot of time studying his/her work. I once spent an entire semester on just W.V. Quine.

And why Cythrual, were you so dedicated to Mister Quine? What was it that interested you so? His theories, the way he presented them, his life? Just curious is all.

I think most people like to get enraptured with some--in their view--Olympian figure. I love reading the short encyclopedia biographies of immortals, because I'm not a follower of Descartes, and cannot seperate ones life, from ones work or ideas.

 

[JColtrane]

I am actually considering a career in ministry and/or a career in academia, whether it be in philosophy or religion or classics.

I'm interested in Kierkegaard's writings for a number of reasons. Personally, I just find his writings extremely "upbuilding", and I always find myself refreshed after reading one of his works. Another huge reason for me is that he has had such a huge influence on Christian theology. Personally, I think that there is a sort of epidemic in American Christian churches and I want to figure out what is wrong before everything completely goes to crap. In short, I think either Kierkegaard himself or a mis-interpretation of Kierkegaard have had a lot to do with what is wrong with the American church. To read Kierkegaard today is so different because the people he was writing for placed so much influence on community that there was no room for individual faith, and I feel like his writing definitely helped correct that, but now that the situation is completely opposite his writings have a tendency to just further reinforce what's wrong. So, in short, I'm trying to place Kierkegaard in context so that people in the church today can benefit from reading his writings rather than be harmed by them.

Another reason I love Kierkegaard is his deconstruction of the modern philosophical age. My personal favorite of this is his critique of thinkers who say "I have doubted everything", and he lambasts this for if doubt is an infinite process you would continually have to be doubting something new every second

 

[speed]

I am actually considering a career in ministry and/or a career in academia, whether it be in philosophy or religion or classics.

I'm interested in Kierkegaard's writings for a number of reasons. Personally, I just find his writings extremely "upbuilding", and I always find myself refreshed after reading one of his works. Another huge reason for me is that he has had such a huge influence on Christian theology. Personally, I think that there is a sort of epidemic in American Christian churches and I want to figure out what is wrong before everything completely goes to crap. In short, I think either Kierkegaard himself or a mis-interpretation of Kierkegaard have had a lot to do with what is wrong with the American church. To read Kierkegaard today is so different because the people he was writing for placed so much influence on community that there was no room for individual faith, and I feel like his writing definitely helped correct that, but now that the situation is completely opposite his writings have a tendency to just further reinforce what's wrong. So, in short, I'm trying to place Kierkegaard in context so that people in the church today can benefit from reading his writings rather than be harmed by them.

Another reason I love Kierkegaard is his deconstruction of the modern philosophical age. My personal favorite of this is his critique of thinkers who say "I have doubted everything", and he lambasts this for if doubt is an infinite process you would continually have to be doubting something new every second

I am glad you shared.