Customer Reviews

Becoming a Self (Purdue University Press Series in the History of Philosophy)

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We live with tremendous complexity. Instead of trying to sort it all out, I would just like to call attention to one point covered in this book that I think of in opposition to American assumptions, but which might apply to any sort of individual submission to the expectations of others:
It takes something like terrible times for Americans to consider themselves as God must see them:

Just as Kierkegaard is always trying to separate the individual from the "crowd," from the "public," from the "present age," so here he seeks to separate the reader from the writer. But in neither case is his purpose to leave the individual simply alone; and if we add "with the text," we have still left out the essential point. He wants to help the individual get alone before God, and to that end he both assaults the apotheosis of the age and deliberately forgoes the privileges of authorship. His whole theory of indirect communication, in which pseudonymity plays such a prominent part, is necessary "because ethically the task is precisely this--that every man comes to stand alone in the God-relationship" (JP 1.649, p. 273). In this mode the author "shyly withdraws (for love is always shy), so as not to witness the admission which [the reader] makes to himself alone before God" (PV 25-26; cf. 111, 135, 150). (Merold Westphal, p. 16).

Westphal does a really nice job with Become a Self. He literally retells Concluding Unscientifc Postscript in late-20th century terms, including several contemporary thinkers of the continental tradition. Westphal attempts to better clarify what Kierkegaard as Climacus means between "being" and "becoming." I recommmend this book highly for anyone that studies Kierkegaard or desire to read Concluding Unscientific Postscript without reading Conclusing Unscientific Postscript.

I have to preface this review by saying I have not read the entire book. I think I have read most of it. I have read various sections from it at various times in my philosophical itinerary and I think if you add them all together I have come pretty close to reading every section.

My most recent encounter with this book was a few weeks ago when I had to present a seminar presentation on some of the central sections of Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Merold Westphal's book was absolutely invaluable to me when preparing my presentation. Westphal is a very clear writer and seems to me to have a knack for cutting right to the most philosophically interesting aspects of Kierkegaard's work. Westphal also brings Kierkegaard into dialogue with a great deal of modern Continental philosophy including post-modernism.

The book begins with a few excellent chapters on the meaning of Kierkegaard's pseudonyms. It is absolutely essential for anyone reading Kierkegaard to have some understanding of the meaning of the pseudonyms and Westphal does an excellent job of shedding light on that topic. The rest of the book is then a close commentary which works through the Concluding Unscientific Postscript section by section. This book is, in my opinion, the best companion to the Concluding Unscientific Postscript out there. Kierkegaard's Fragments and Postscript: The Religious Philosophy of Johannes Climacus by C. Stephen Evans is another very good book which comes in handy when working with the Fragments and the Postscript but, in my opinion, if you are just working with the Postcript Westphal's book should take priority.

Both books belong on the short list of books to read on Kierkegaard. They are both very good. It is a shame that Westphal's book went out of print and is selling for over a hundred dollars. If you have an interest in Kierkegaard and you can afford it I think owning it is worthwhile because it is one of the books on Kierkegaard you will want to return to over and over as I have done. Otherwise I recommend trying to find it at a library because it is definitely worth reading.

The idea of reading Concluding Unscientific Postscript without reading Concluding Unscientific Postscript is something I find horrifying. Why not eat gravy instead of a steak. Westphal's book is an excellent adjunct to Kierkegaard's, but Kierkegaard is funnier, quirkier, more wide ranging and he flat out tells better jokes. This book is an excellent adjunct to the Postscript but is lightweight compared to the Postscript. Read this before you read the Postscript. Read this while you read the Postscript (hard to do: reading the Postscript is pretty consuming). Read this after you read the Postscript (I had read the Postscript five time before I read this book and found it very enjoyable). But for God's sake: Read the Postscript. This book is no good as a replacement for it and why should you miss out on the best things in life?