Writing as a technology of the self in Kierkegaard and Foucault

Writing is a very important means by which we can work on ourselves. Yet as a "technology of the self" writing has changed substantially at different times during European history. This essay sketches some of the crucial characteristics of wriring as a technology of the self for Plato's contemporaries, for the early church fathers, and then for Peter Abelard. The changes exemplified in the confessional writing of Abelard became the platform for writing as a technology of the self in European modernism. The characteristics of modernist writing as a technology of the self are examined in some detail in the work of Kierkegaard, particularly with respect to his aesthetic writings and his use of multiple narrative voices.Kierkegaard's uses of writing are compared and contrasted with those of Baudelaire and Foucault.Escriure és un important mitjà amb el qual podem actuar sobre nosaltres mateixos. Tanmateix, com a "tecnologia del jo", l'escriptura ha canviat substancialment en el temps durant la història europea. Aquest assaig esbossa algunes de les característiques més rellevants de l'escriptura com a tecnologia del jo per als contemporanis de Plató, per als primers pares de l'església i per a Pere Abelard. Els canvis exemplificats en l'escriptura confessional d'Abelard varen esdevenir la plataforma per a l'escriptura com una tecnologia del jo en la modernitat europea. Les característiques de l'escriprura de la modernirat en tant que tecnologia del jo són examinades arnb cert detall en l'obra de Kierkegaard, parricularment en rclació amb els seus escrits estètics i el seu us de múltiples veus narratives. Els usos Kierkegaardians dc l'escriptura són comparats i contrastats amb els de Baudelaire i Foucault

Defining the authentic teacher

The impetus behind the writing of this dissertation came out of informal interviews held with teachers about their actual practice of teaching. What these interviews revealed was that teachers teach in a kind of "muddledness" and confusion. Mainly this dissertation aims to define a way of being in teaching that gives teaching shape and direction. The theoretical understanding underlying the research of the dissertation is based in metaphysics and existential thought. Specifically, the content is focussed on the concept of authenticity. Authenticity has particular meaning in philosophical thought. For an understanding of the existential meaning of authenticity I have turned to European philosophy and the thinking of Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre. For an understanding of how authenticity in its existential sense relates to the profession of teaching and being a teacher I explore the thinking of six contemporary Anglo-American educational theorists: William Pinar, Mary Warnock, Nel Noddings, Max van Manen, Maxine Greene, and Dwayne Huebner. Through a form of hermeneutics and reflective critical analysis I explore how authenticity is valued in the thinking of each of these six educational theorists. Drawing on the thoughts and insights offered by these selected authors I construct my own model of authenticity in teaching in the conclusion of the dissertation in an approach that I call "the multifacetted Janus face of authenticity." The dissertation is framed in the language of literature, which supports the methodology. Specifically it is the writings of Virginia Woolf that are used to formulate this investigation into the meaningfulness of teaching

The relation between Hegel and Kierkegaard

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University1. The Problem of the Dissertation The problem of the dissertation is to determine the nature of Kierkegaard's relation to Hegel in areas of agreements and differences. This investigation attempts to penetrate beneath Kierkegaard's polemical writings to the basis of his philosophy. The central contention is that Hegel exerted a formative influence upon Kierkegaard. 2. The Method of Study The method of the dissertation is threefold: historical, comparative, and critical. The historical-comparative-critical method, as used in this study, involves the following principles: 1) to give an account of Hegel's and Kierkegaard's views of their historical predecessors, of their systems, and of their influences on some contemporary trends of thought; 2) to compare the two respective systems in terms of both similarities and differences; 3) to criticize Kierkegaard's view in light of Hegel's philosophy. 3. A Final Summary Kierkegaard's relation to Hegel has been shown to be twofold: First, Kierkegaard uses Hegel's terminology and meanings in the development of his own thought as well as in his critique of Hegel. Thus Kierkegaard's relation to Hegel is always paradoxical; that is, the Danish philosopher uses at the same tine Hegelian and anti-Hegelian views. Secondly, Kierkegaard's philosophy lacks the comprehensiveness of Hegel's, yet there are some essential points on which the thinkers agree. Oftentimes the agreement suggests a profound influence of Hegel on Kierkegaard. However, even on basic points of agreement, Kierkegaard's use of Hegelianism is not free from vast differences and hesitancies. The following statements are the outstanding conclusions of this study: 1. Hegel and Kierkegaard share in common a dialectical methodology. In Kierkegaard's denial of smooth transition from one stage to another there is opposition to Hegel's view. But there is at times a counter-tendency in Kierkegaard's attitude to affirm smooth transitions in agreement with Hegel's position. 2. Like Kierkegaard, Hegel is also an existential thinker, since both thinkers write nothing of significance that is not filled with emphasis upon participation, feeling and involvement. Hegel was not unaware of existence as Kierkegaard seemed to believe. 3. Like Hegel, Kierkegaard considers life to be dynamic, and spiritual. Perhaps Kierkegaard is an ethical idealist, as Hegel is an absolute idealist. 4. Kierkegaard, along with Hegel, maintains that the abstract is the unreal. Kierkegaard is not fair to Hegel's system in making it the acme of abstraction. 5. Some aspects of Hegel's religious thought, especially his early theological writings and his view of subjective religion, are close to Kierkegaard's position. 6. Kierkegaard, opposing Hegel's over-emphasis upon essence, affirms the priority of existence over essence. 7. The following basic criticisms by Kierkegaard of Hegel's system have been Shown to be not totally justified: 1) Kierkegaard is anti-metaphysical, and opposes Hegel's identification of being and thought, since it makes for pure abstraction. 2) Kierkegaard is anti-historical, and attacks speculative thought which imports necessity into the historical process. 3) Kierkegaard is antisystematic, and criticizes the systematic tendency of Hegelianism, since an existential system is impossible. The central weakness in most of Kierkegaard's criticisms of Hegel is that Kierkegaard misses the empirical side of the latter. 8. Both Hegelian and Kierkegaardian concepts are found in the salient conflicts in pragmatism, realism, post-Kierkegaardian existentialism, and idealism

Kierkegaard's critique of rationalism

I. KIERKEGAARD'S LIFE AND WORKS: A "DEFENSE" OF MAN • II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF RATIONALISM: DESCARTES TO HEGEL • III. KIERKEGAARD'S CONCEPTION OF RATIONALISM • IV. DISSOLUTION: 'THE CROWD' • V. RECONSTRUCTION: 'THE INDIVIDUAL' • NOTES TO TEXT • BIBLIOGRAPH

THE CATHOLIC RECEPTION OF SØREN KIERKEGAARD: WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE WRITINGS OF HENRI DE LUBAC, HANS URS VON BALTHASAR, AND CORNELIO FABRO

In this thesis, I argue that although he is not always recognised as such, Søren Kierkegaard has been an important ally for Catholic theologians since the early twentieth century. Moreover, properly understanding this relationship and its origins offers valuable resources and insights to contemporary Catholic theology. Of course, there are some negative preconceptions to overcome. Historically, some Catholic readers have been suspicious of Kierkegaard, viewing him as an irrational Protestant irreconcilably at odds with Catholic thought. Nevertheless, the favourable mention of Kierkegaard in John Paul II’s Fides et Ratio is an indication that Kierkegaard’s writings are not so easily dismissed. My thesis investigates the writings of emblematic Catholic thinkers in the twentieth century to assess their substantial engagement with Kierkegaard’s writings. I argue that Kierkegaard’s writings have stimulated reform and renewal in twentieth century Catholic theology, and should continue to do so today. To demonstrate Kierkegaard’s relevance in pre-conciliar Catholic theology, a number of Catholic theologians with a reform agenda need to be examined, paying close attention to their emphases and responses to Kierkegaard. I set this backdrop by investigating the wider evidence of a Catholic reception of Kierkegaard in the early twentieth century—looking specifically at influential figures like Theodor Haecker, Romano Guardini, Erich Przywara, and other Roman Catholic thinkers that are typically associated with ressourcement. A thesis could be written on any one of these figures, and space does not permit an exhaustive index of Catholic engagement with Kierkegaard. However, I have chosen to focus upon the writings of Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and the Italian Thomist, Cornelio Fabro. I turn to de Lubac as a Catholic reformer that offers a model of positive engagement with Kierkegaard’s writings, and to Balthasar as a negative model. In Kierkegaard’s writings, de Lubac finds the appropriate grammar to name the shared Enlightenment presuppositions of both Neo-scholasticism and the atheistic humanism of his day, and to express anew the insights retrieved from the Church Fathers. In Balthasar’s case, Kierkegaard serves as a kind of Protestant foil in his account of theological aesthetics, which I argue distorts Balthasar’s own theology of anxiety and Christology. As an original contribution, I introduce for the first time in English a necessary supplement to the Catholic reception of Kierkegaard in the underexplored writings of the Italian Thomist, Cornelio Fabro. In particular, Fabro draws heavily upon Kierkegaard’s account of freedom and attempts to provide concrete examples of Kierkegaard’s high regard for Mary and his critique of Christendom in ways that parallel John Henry Newman and makes Kierkegaard more palatable to Catholic readers. In selecting de Lubac, Balthasar, and Fabro, my aim is not just to narrate a history of Catholic engagement with Kierkegaard, but also to provide a range of representative entry points for Kierkegaard’s writings to continue to stimulate reform and renewal in Catholic theology today in the shadow and spirit of the ressourcement movement

The concept of remembrance in Walter Benjamin

This thesis argues that the role played by the concept of remembrance (Eingedenken) in Walter Benjamin's 'theory of the knowledge of history' and in his engagement with Enlightenment universal history, is a crucial one. The implications of Benjamin's contention that history's 'original vocation' is 'remembrance' have hitherto gone largely unnoticed. The following thesis explores the meaning of the concept of remembrance and assesses the significance of this proposed link between history and memory, looking at both the mnemonic aspect of history and the historical facets of memory. It argues that by mobilising the simultaneously destructive and constructive capacities of remembrance, Benjamin sought to develop a critical historiography which would enable a radical encounter with a previously suppressed past. In so doing he takes up a stance (explicit and implicit) towards existing philosophical conceptions of history, in particular the idea of universal history found in German Idealism. Benjamin reveals an intention to retain the epistemological aspirations of universal history whilst ridding that approach of its apologetic moment. He criticises existing conceptions of history on the basis that each assumes homogeneous time to be the framework in which historical events occur. Insight into the distinctive temporality of remembrance proves to be the touchstone for this critique, and provides a paradigm for a very different conception of time. The thesis goes on to determine what is valid and what is problematic both in this concept of remembrance and in the theory of historical knowledge which it informs, by subjecting both to the most cogent criticisms which can be levelled at them. What emerges is not only the importance of this concept for an understanding of Benjamin's philosophy but the pertinence of this concept for any philosophical account of memory

The concept of the soul in Kierkegaard and Freud

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this dissertation is to examine the use or uses of the concept "soul" in the writings of Soren Kierkegaard and Sigmund Freud. The concept has been chosen because of the central place which it has occupied in theories of personality and doctrines of man; because it brings us, traditionally at least, to the place of man's awareness of God; and because it has been a point of focus in man's thought of immortality. And these men have been chosen because they are fountainhead personalities; because they represent so strongly two contrasting anthropologies, the Christian and the naturalistic; and because each of them, in the last half century, has had an increasing influence upon the climate of western thought. The general procedure has been to see each man in his own historical, geographical, intellectual and social setting; to examine autobiographical and biographical material; to discover and to summarize previous research in this special field; to study the writings of each man in the order of their appearanoe; to pay particular attention, not only to the acceptance of the concept "soul", but to its rejection, and to the reasons for this rejection; and to compare and contrast the two resulting concepts. [TRUNCATED

Fall, Repetition and Freedom revisited: 'Taking Notice' of religious themes in Kierkegaard's aesthetic writings with references to St. Augustine, Kant and Schelling

This thesis explores the interrelationship between the notions of the Fall, repetition and freedom with references to the writings of Kierkegaard and secondarily those of Kant, St. Augustine and Schelling. Kierkegaard's aesthetic texts and his concept of 'taking notice' are the indispensable background to the question of the different possible interpretations in regard of the relation between these three concepts. This primary interest is furthermore linked to an investigation of the emergence of different aspects of human singularity and of the divine that arguably emerge alongside each one of the different interpretations. The thesis consists of four chapters, the first and last on Kierkegaard, the second on St. Augustine and Kant and the third on Schelling. The first chapter investigates the place of the concept of anxiety in Kierkegaard's oeuvre, discussing at the same time his understanding of time, freedom and the fall through his appropriation of the story of Adam. Particular attention is paid to a discussion of the author's subsequent call to 'take notice' of the importance of the possibility of a distinction between a time before and a time after the Fall. This paves the ground for the second chapter, which is an investigation of St. Augustine's radical distinction between the time before and after the Fall and Kant's account of the Fall and the unfolding of history. The third chapter discusses the possibility of postulating some sort of continuity between the two modes of time mentioned above through an interpretation of Schelling's treatment of divine and human freedom, time, history and repetition. In the fourth chapter, Schelling's elaborations on time, freedom and contemporaneity provide the ground for a reinterpretation of Kierkegaard's insights on repetition, faith and contemporaneity. This discussion is primarily conducted through a revaluation of three biblical motifs, namely Job's ordeal, Abraham's sacrifice and the coming into existence of the God-man. These narratives are instrumental in allowing us to 'take notice' of the articulation between the notions of Freedom, repetition and the Fall emerging from Kierkegaard's aesthetic writings