Søren Kierkegaard: Subjectivity, Irony, & the Crisis of Modernity

Soren Kierkegaard: Subjectivity, Irony, and the Crisis of Modernity examines the thought of Soren Kierkegaard, a unique figure, who has inspired, provoked, fascinated, and irritated people ever since he walked the streets of Copenhagen. At the end of his life, Kierkegaard said that the only model he had for his work was the Greek philosopher Socrates. This work takes this statement as its point of departure. Jon Stewart explores what Kierkegaard meant by this and to show how different aspects of his writing and argumentative strategy can be traced back to Socrates. The main focus is The Concept of Irony, which is a key text at the beginning of Kierkegaard's literary career. Although it was an early work, it nevertheless played a determining role in his later development and writings. Indeed, it can be said that it laid the groundwork for much of what would appear in his later famous books such as Either/Or and Fear and Trembling.

Jon Stewart is Associate Professor at the Soren Kierkegaard Research Centre, at the University of Copenhagen. He is the editor of the series Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, Texts from Golden Age Denmark and Danish Golden Age Studies. He is the coeditor of the Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook and Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series. His works include The Unity of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: A Systematic Interpretation (2000), Kierkegaard's Relations to Hegel Reconsidered (2003), A History of Hegelianism in Golden Age Denmark, Tomes I-II (2007), Idealism and Existentialism: Hegel and Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European Philosophy (2010), and The Unity of Content and Form in Philosophical Writing: The Perils of Conformity (2013).