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Product Details
Series: Penguin Classics
Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (December 1, 1992)
there is a countervailing advantage this edition offers against the princeton volumes even though its abridged... this is a lighter and smoother English translation. English is not my native language, but I believe many American readers would find the Hong translations as tough-going as I did (even if meticulous). Kierkegaard is already very wordy so this translation is a pain reducer.
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81 of 87 people found the following review helpful
for the most part, it goes without saying that pure philosophy texts make for difficult reading. To a great extent, kierkegaard is no exception. However, I would highly recommend this book for anyone struggling with questions of faith, particularly those involving the relationship between god and man. For me, the most valuable part of the book was the author's clear conflict and passion for the issues. It seemed to me that he was not trying to write as some great philosopher-king trying to bring light to the poor suffering masses, but as a sincerely conflicted human being, down in the trenches with the rest of us, just trying to understand what it all means. In short, although the style may be a little hard to wade through at times, it is a thouroughly thought-provoking and insightful book.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
This was Kierkegaard's first major work. It consists of two "parts": the first written by an aesthetic fellow named A and the second by an ethical fellow named Judge Vilhelm. The two parts are meant to show us the difference between the aesthetic and ethical modes of life.
The first half, written by the aesthete A, reveals the importance of the interesting to the aesthete. The aesthete is someone who has no higher purpose, but who simply seeks enjoyment. For them the interesting is the highest good, as it is the best road to enjoyment. The worst evil is boredom, so there is an entire chapter about how to avoid boredom by practicing the art of forgetting. There are a few essays about sorrow and the erotic, in which Don Giovanni is held up as the supreme example of the "immediate erotic" (immediate meaning in this case that his enjoyment is entirely in the moment, not in any sort of reflection). A reflects on differing types of sorrow, seeking to find the interesting in them. For the aesthete everything is fair game for finding enjoyment. The section concludes with the famous (or infamous) Diary of a Seducer, in which Johannes the Seducer keeps a diary as he seduces an innocent young woman, whose love he sacrafices at the alter of the interesting.
The second half is by Judge Vilhelm, who is attempting to convert A to the ethical mode of life. Just as A's half focused on the preference of seduction and the erotic to marriage, Vilhelm seeks to justify marriage. Surprisingly, he tries to justify marriage on aesthetic grounds before moving on to discuss the virtues of marriage from the ethical view of life. While A's writing style is witty and sarcastic, Vilhelm's style can be described as nothing short of boring.Read more ›
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Either/or is two parts in which Kierkegaard used different false names or pseudonyms. The first part discusses the aesthetic or personal experience, where imagination is the most powerful factor of aesthetic pleasure. For the aesthetic, imagination is the only way to break the boredom barrier just as Don Juan avoided repetition of the love act with the same woman in order to break the dullness of repetition. In that way, the aesthetic hunger for pleasure leads to the same void of repetition by seeking a way out of it. Not to spoil the book for readers, but the last section of the first part of either/or "the diary of the seducer" is a very interesting diary in which the character tries to avoid the climax of a relationship with a woman he desires because of the fear of emptiness in relationships. Imagination to the seducer is the only way to maximize his aesthetic pleasure, while the success of the seduction will definitely end the adventure and the prey should be replaced by a more difficult one.
The second part, which deals with the ethical, or supposedly a higher form of existence, takes the form of letters written by different characters as a response to the first part where reason not seduction is used to defend values, relationships, and the pleasure of having a monogamous soul mate. The argument in this section promises greater fulfillment from devotion to higher morals which ultimately lead to a deeper aesthetic pleasure.
It's widely thought that the discussion of the aesthetic and the ethical is a reflection of Kierkegaard's own confusion, especially after ending his engagement with the love of his life Regine Olsen, just as the seducer of either/or did.Read more ›
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32 of 41 people found the following review helpful
K./Eremita/... is certainly an amazing and entertaining philosopher, and one should either read everything of his or nothing, I was surprised that the book is not listed as ABRIDGED. The first (and most popular) book is less badly cut, and I'm sure all of the excisions improve the book, if you're serious about K., you might find this a problem. E/O is a two volume work-- good luck finding them, though.
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This item: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life (Penguin Classics)
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