Department of Health and Social Science

UPZNR4-30-3 Module Handbook 2018-19

Advanced Philosophical
Texts:
Schelling and
Kierkegaard

Tinted photograph of F.W.J. Schelling, Erlangen, Kierkegaard sculpture by Louis Hasselriis,

1928, Bavaria, ca. 1850 in the Royal Library Gardens, Copenhagen

Lecture Times Thursday 12.00pm

Module Leaders Prof. Alison Assiter (for Kierkegaard)
Office Hour 2.30pm Thursday
Phone number x3284554
Email addresses
Alison.Assiter@uwe.ac.uk
Term Two: Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Kierkegaard is not a philosopher in any conventional sense. He is not obviously
concerned with speculative metaphysics or with ethics or epistemology. You will
not find clear arguments in his works. He writes in a literary manner, often
under pseudonyms. This has led many to deny that he is a philosopher. His name,
for example, did not appear at all in Bertrand Russell’s History of Western
Philosophy. Moreover, two prominent contemporary commentators on
Kierkegaard, Claire Carlisle and George Pattison, deny that he is a philosopher. A
leading introduction to Kierkegaard’s works in the 1950’s was called
Kierkegaard the Cripple. Another was called Kierkegaard the Melancholy Dane.
Most of his works were not accessible in English until the 1960’s. Publishers
indeed had ripped out part of his famous early work Either-Or and published it
separately – as the Seducer’s Diary.

But a different Kierkegaard is beginning to emerge now. The contemporary

journal of Kierkegaard Kierkegaardiania is publishing a collection of pieces on
Kierkegaard as a naturalist. Kierkegaard clearly is deeply concerned with the
ethical and of course also the religious dimensions of human existence.
Importantly for this course, Kierkegaard attended Schelling’s lectures in Berlin.
He was, it is said at first transfixed. He was later disappointed, but there remain,
in our view, deep connections between the two. Concept of Anxiety, a work on
which we will focus for part of the course, shows evidence of this link. This work
was also deeply influenced by Kant, and particularly by his late work Religion
within the Limits of Mere Reason Alone.

Kierkegaard was also supremely influenced and inspired by the Greeks. Socrates
is the person, perhaps more than any other philosopher, who shaped his thinking
about the paradoxical. But Kierkegaard is also, under the pseudonym of
Climacus, in Concluding Unscientific PostScript, as well as elsewhere, preoccupied
with the ancient Greek question of the good life and with how to live this kind of
life. However, the way in which he does this will be part of the focus of this
module. The interpretation that will be offered will not go along with the view of
Kierkegaard as a simple fideist – as someone who just believes, whether or not it
is rational to do so.

Core Texts for Term Two:

Kierkegaard, S. (1983) Fear and Trembling, ed. and trans Howard V. Yong and
Edna H. Yong, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Kierkegaard, S.(1980a) The Concept of Anxiety, ed. and trans. Howard V. Yong
and Edna H. Yong, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

John Lippett, Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling, Routledge Philosophy

Guidebook.

Assiter, Alison, Kierkegaard, Eve and Metaphors of Birth, London, Rowman and
Littlefield, 2015.
Sartre (amongst others).
 LECTURE PROGRAMME

Term Two – Kierkegaard

Week One LECTURE AND INTRODUCTION

Week Two Fear and Trembling: Introduction, Preface and Atunement Hannay
translation, pp. 7-48. Also read relevant sections from Lippett.

Week Three FT Speech in Praise of Abraham, pp. 49-56 plus Lippett

Week Four FT Preamble from the Heart and Problema 1 pp. 57-83. Plus
Lippett.

Week Five FT Problema II pp. 96-109 plus Lippett.

Week Six FT Problema III and Epilogue pp 109-145. Plus Lippett.

Week Seven Concept of Anxiety, Reidar Thomte translation, pp. 7-46.

Week Eight CA pp.46-73.

Week Nine CA pp.73-103.

Week Ten CA 103-137

Week Eleven Selections from Works of Love

FURTHER READING

Please note that the below is not an exhaustive list of sources on Kierkegaard,
but is meant to serve as a useful starting point for your own research.

 Kierkegaard, S. (1980b) The Sickness unto Death, ed. And trans. Howard
V. Yong and Edna H. Yong, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
 Kierkegaard, S.J. (1985) Philosophical Fragments: Johannes Climacus.
Trans. Hong, H. and Hong,E. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
 Kierkegaard, S. (1967-78 ) Journals and papers, 7 Volumes, trans. Hong,
H. and Hong, E. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
 Kierkegaard,S.(1987) Either-Or, Part One, ed. and trans. by Hong,H. and
Hong, E. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  Kierkegaard, S. (1992) Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Cambridge,
CUP.
 Kierkegaard, S.(1995) Works of Love, ed. and trans. Howard V.Yong
and Edna H. Yong, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
 Kierkegaard, S. (1998) The Point of View for my work as an Author, ed.
And trans. Howard V. Yong and Edna H. Yong, Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
 Kierkegaard, S. (1990) Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, ed. and trans.
Howard V. Yong and Edna H. Yong, Princeton: Princeton University
Press. (UD)

Further Useful Commentaries

 Grøn, Arne, The Concept of Anxiety in Søren Kierkegaard, translated by

Jeanette B.L. Knox, Macon: Mercer University Press, 2008.
 Ferreira, M. Jamie, Love's Grateful Striving: A Commentary on
Kierkegaard's Works of Love, Oxford University Press, 2001.

Otherwise there is no reading you must do. The following is a range of texts
on aspects of Kierkegaard’s writings that you can select from. You may
choose your own essay topic in consultation with the tutor.

Introductory texts

 Patrick Gardiner Kierkegaard: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford

university Press, 2002)
 *Clare Carlisle Kierkegaard: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Continuum
2006)
 Michael Watts Kierkegaard (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003)
 John Caputo How to Read Kierkegaard (London: Norton, 2008)
 *C. Stephen Evans Kierkegaard: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2009)
 *George Pattison The Philosophy of Kierkegaard (London: Acumen 2005)
 *M. Jamie Ferreira Kierkegaard (London: Blackwell, 2008)
 George Pattison Kierkegaard and the Crisis of Faith (London: SPCK, 1997)
 Alastair Hannay Kierkegaard (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982)
 Haecker,T.(1948) trans. C.V.O. Bruyn, Kierkegaard the Cripple,
 London: Harvill.
 Martin, H. (1950) Kierkegaard the Melancholy Dane, London, Epworth
Press.

Further commentaries

 Agacinski, S. (1998) We are not Sublime: love and sacrifice, Abraham and
Ourselves, in Kierkegaard: A Critical Reader, ed. Ree, J. and Chamberlain, J.
Oxford: Blackwell
 Alison Assiter Kierkegaard, Metaphysics and Political Theory: Unfinished
Selves (London: Continuum, 2009)
 George J. Stack Kierkegaard's Existential Ethics (University of Alabama
Press, 1977)
 *Anthony Rudd Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993)
 *C. Stephen Evans Kierkegaard's "Fragments" and "Postscript": the
Religious Philosophy of Johannes Climacus (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.
: Humanities Press, 1983)
 Milbank, J.(1996) The Sublime in Kierkegaard, The Heythrop Journal,
Vol.37, Issue 3, pp.298-321.
 Pattison, G. (2002) Kierkegaard, Religion and the 19th century crisis of
culture, Cambridge: C.U.P.
 Pattison, G. (2002) Kierkegaard’s Upbuilding Discourses,London:
Routledge
 Ree, J. and Chamberlain, J. (eds.) (1988) Kierkegaard: A Critical
 Reader, Oxford: Blackwells.
 Ricoeur, P. (1998) Philosophy after Kierkegaard, in Ree J and Chamberlain,
J. eds.
 *Edward F. Mooney Selves in Discord and Resolve (New
York: Routledge, 1996)
 C. Stephen Evans Kierkegaard's Ethic of Love: Divine Commands and Moral
Obligations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
 Harvie Ferguson Melancholy and the Critique of Modernity: Søren
Kierkegaard's Religious Psychology (London: Routledge, 1995)
 Sharon Krishek Kierkegaard on Faith and Love (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2009)
 Sylvia Walsh Kierkegaard: Thinking Christianly in an Existential Mode
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)
 Sylvia Walsh Living Christianly: Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Christian
Existence (University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University
Press, 2005)
 Karstein Hopland Corporeality, Consciousness and Religion: a Study in
Søren Kierkegaard's Anthropology (Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag, 2009)
 Clare Carlisle Kierkegaard's Philosophy of Becoming: Movements and
Positions (Albany, NY.: State University of New York Press, 2005)
 Mark C. Taylor Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Authorship: a Study of Time
and the Self (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975)
 Storm, A. (1996-2008) On line Commentary on Kierkegaard,
http://sorenkierkegaard.org/method.htm accessed 2nd July, 2008.
 Tsakiri, V. (2006) Kierkegaard: Anxiety, Repetition and Contemporaneity,
London: Palgrave.
 Wesphal, M.(2008) The Many faces of Levinas as a Reader of Kierkegaard,
in Kierkegaard and Levinas, Ethics, Politics and Religion, eds. Simmons, J.A.
and Wood,D. Indiana, Indiana University Press.
 *Michael Theunissen Kierkegaard's Concept of Despair trans. Barbara
Harshav and Helmut Illbruck (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2005)
The following are useful collections of essays on Kierkegaard, either by
single or multiple authors:-

 The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard ed. Alastair Hannay and Gordon

D. Marino (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998)
 *C. Stephen Evans Kierkegaard on Faith and the Self: Collected
Essays (Waco, TX : Baylor University Press, 2006)
 Alastair Hannay Kierkegaard and Philosophy: Selected Essays
(London: Routledge, 2003)
 Ethics, Love, and Faith in Kierkegaard: Philosophical Engagements ed.
Edward F. Mooney (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008)

The following are comparative studies of Kierkegaard and other figures in

the history of philosophy and literature (in no particular order):-

 *Michelle Kosch Freedom and Reason in Kant, Schelling, and

Kierkegaard (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006)
 Ulrich Knappe Theory and Practice in Kant and Kierkegaard (Berlin
: Walter de Gruyter, 2004)
 Michael Weston Kierkegaard and Modern Continental Philosophy: an
Introduction (London: Routledge, 1994)
 Jacob Howland Kierkegaard and Socrates: a Study in Philosophy and Faith
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
 J. Preston Cole The Problematic Self in Kierkegaard and Freud (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1971)
 Ralph Harper The Seventh Solitude: Metaphysical Homelessness in
Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1965)
 Genia Schönbaumsfeld A Confusion of the Spheres: Kierkegaard and
Wittgenstein on Philosophy and Religion (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2007)
 Jon Stewart Kierkegaard's Relations to Hegel Reconsidered (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Full biographies of Kierkegaard include (shorter biographical accounts are

often given in the first chapter of introductory books on Kierkegaard):-

 Walter Lowrie Kierkegaard (London: Oxford University Press, 1938)

 *Alastair Hannay Kierkegaard: a Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2001)
 Joakim Garff Søren Kierkegaard: a Biography trans. Bruce H.
Kirmmse (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)

Kierkegaard and Feminism

 Celine Leon and Sylvia Walsh, Feminist Interpretations of Soren

Kierkegaard (Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997).

Assessment
You choose your own essay question but you must agree your title with the
module leader before you begin writing.

Assessment Regulations

This is a standard module consisting of two components, A and B, and is rated at

30 credits under the Modular Assessment Regulations (MAR). We discover if you
have attained the required level of subject-knowledge and understanding by
assessing you through these two components: Component B is an essay and
Component A an examination. To pass the entire module you need to get a
minimum mark of 35% for each component and an overall module pass
mark of 40%.

Weighting between components A and B A: 50% B: 50%

ATTEMPT 1

First Assessment Opportunity

Component A

1. Examination (3 hours) 50%

Component B

1. Essay (2500 words) 25%

2. Essay (2500 words) 25%

Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes is/is

not required)

Component A

1. Examination (3 hours) 50%

Component B

1. Essay (2500 words) 25%

2. Essay (2500 words) 25%

First assessment opportunity essay hand in dates

1. Essay (2500 words) 25%

2. Essay (2500 words) 25% 9/4/19

First assessment opportunity examination

The 3 hour examination will be divided into two sections. One section will cover
the first term's work, and the second section will cover the second terms work.
Students must answer at least one question from each section of the exam
paper.

The date for the examination will be set later in the academic year.

Second assessment opportunity hand in dates

Dates for submission of essays at the second assessment opportunity will be set
later in the academic year.

Second assessment opportunity examination

The second assessment opportunity examination will have the same format as
the first assessment opportunity (see above). Dates for this examination will be
set later in the academic year.

NB Please read the sections ‘writing and your own words’ and ‘referencing’ below
carefully and follow the instructions. Failure to reference properly will be penalised and
suspected plagiarism cases will be referred to the plagiarism officer with no exceptions.

WRITING IN YOUR OWN WORDS

The great majority of the assignment should be written in your own words.

This is important for three principal reasons. First, it is important for you to
demonstrate your command of written English, and also to develop your own writing
style. Second, using your own words enables you to show that you have understood the
sources that you have read. Third, it enables you to show that you can construct an
argument which is your own because it is expressed in your words.

When you do use others’ words – whether from books, articles or web-sites – this
should be:

i. Infrequent (no more than a few times in an essay)

ii. Brief (a maximum of a couple of sentences at a time)
iii. Properly referenced (see the detailed guidance on referencing in this handbook)

We cannot give you marks unless you show understanding by using your own words
and producing your own arguments. Using large quantities of the words of others is
poor scholarship (even when properly referenced) and will be penalised.

REFERENCING

What is referencing?
Referencing involves noting the sources (e.g. books, articles, websites etc) you use in
writing a piece of coursework.

Why reference?
1. It is convenient for the writer and the reader
If you go back to your work at a later date (say, to revise for exams) you may want a
reminder of your sources so you can re-read them. Your referencing tells you where to
go back to look.
In reading the work of others, you discover their sources and where to find additional
material. Even if you do not go on to look at these sources you are adding to your
knowledge in discovering what is worth reading on a particular subject.

2. It is a hallmark of academic writing

You will find it in the books and articles you read for your course.

3. It avoids any suggestion of plagiarism

Referencing shows that you are not attempting to claim the work of others as your own.

 REFERENCING IS REQUIRED FOR ALL WRITTEN COURSEWORK

 FAILURE TO REFERENCE-- OR SERIOUSLY INADEQUATE REFERENCING-- WILL
ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR MARK

What to reference
1. When you use the exact words of another person.
2. When you use the ideas, thoughts, opinions, interpretations of others.

How to reference
There are several different formats. We use the Harvard Method. There is an extensive
guide to this (and other formats) on the UWE library webpages, ‘Guide to Referencing’.
Below we provide a very brief guide to the Harvard Method. Much more can be found at
http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/resources/general/info_study_skills/refs.htm

Where to reference
In the Harvard Method a reference is made in two different places:

1. At the place where you quote the words of another person or refer to their ideas.
You put the reference in brackets at the end of the sentence before the full stop. You
note the author’s surname, the date of publication, and the page(s) you refer to.

In the example below exact words are quoted so inverted commas are used. Note that p.
is short for page number:

‘States of affairs, if they are indeed necessary beings, would appear to be abstract
entities’ (Lowe, 2002, p.129).

In the next example the author’s exact words are not quoted so there are no inverted
commas. Note that pp. is short for page numbers:

Berkeley argued that what appears is all there is. (Berkeley, 2008, pp.119-121).

2. At the end. This is called a bibliography – a list of all the sources you have referred to.
The list is organised in alphabetical order by the surname of the author. The
bibliography gives more information than the reference within the text.

An example of a bibliography is:

Berkeley, G., 2008. Philosophical Writings, ed. Desmond M. Clarke. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.
Kyrre, J,, B. Olsen, E. Selinger and S. Riis, eds., 2009. New Waves in Philosophy of
Technology. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hansard (2005) House of Commons Debates,

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmse0405.htm [accessed 14 July 2007]

Blanchowicz, J., 2010, ‘The incompletability of metaphysics’, Idealistic Studies 40 (3),

pp.257-273.

Dunham, J., I.H. Grant and S. Watson, 2011, Idealism. The History of a Philosophy.
Stocksfield: Acumen.

The bibliography shows:

 The surname of the author(s) (or name of organisation)
 Their first initial
 The year of publication.
 The title of the book or article (for an article, the title appears in inverted
commas)
 Where it was published.

i. For a book this is a place—a town or city (not the county, state or country).
and the name of the publisher. An example in the bibliography above is

London: Palgrave Macmillan.

ii. For an article

This is either

The name of the journal, the volume and issue number, and the page numbers. An
example in the bibliography above is

Idealistic Studies 40 (3), pp.257-273.

[The first figure is the volume number. Usually each year of a journal has an
individual volume number. There are usually several separate issues each year. They
have a separate issue number and this is the figure in brackets]

or the book within which the article appeared and who edited it. An example in the
bibliography above is

Kyrre, J,, B. Olsen, E. Selinger and S. Riis, eds., 2009. New Waves in Philosophy of
Technology. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
[Note that eds. is short for editors, ed. is short for editor]

iii. For a website this is the URL and the date you looked at it. An example in the
bibliography above

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmse0405.htm [accessed14 July

2007]