Customer Reviews

The Kierkegaard Reader (Blackwell Readers)

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Kierkegaard's body of work is so extensive, and the individual texts often so lengthy, that it's impossible to do justice to them in an anthology--so none of the anthologies available are entirely satisfying.

However, this one is probably at the bottom of the list. The selections are puzzling. For example, from the very important text "Either/Or," it includes only 20 pages from the chapter "Crop Rotation." This chapter by itself (an "either/or" without the "or") is a bit hard to make sense of, and such a small clipping from a text consisting of two lengthy volumes makes me wonder if it's best left out entirely.

The selection from Fear and Trembling includes problemas I and III--when I and II are the essential bits (and III makes little sense when you skip the middle section).

Philosophical Fragments completely leaves out the main chapters and main topic: the contrast of philosophical and religious ways of approaching truth--it includes what is, basically, supplementary background material for understanding the passages left out.

Concluding Unscientific Postscripts completely leaves out the chapter on subjectivity as truth, which is, quite frankly, the only part of that enormous work worth reading for anyone other than specialists.

To top it off, Johannes Climacus, which is far from a key text, is included in its excruciating entirety.

Overall, it's a terrible selection for beginners--who are the ones in need of a good anthology. (Advanced students should be reading the full, primary sources.) I would strongly recommend considering other anthologies, such as the princeton press "kierkegaard anthology" edited by Robert Bretall.