Kierkegaard (Past Masters) (Paperback)

~ Patrick Gardiner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Review from previous edition: "Patrick Gardiner's beautifully written Kierkegaard makes him come alive both as a thinker and as a human being."--Independent
"Marvellously lucid and readable book."--E. Pivcevic, University of Bristol
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Scholars have largely misunderstood Soren Kierkegaard, remembering him chiefly in connection with the development of existentialist philosophy in this century. In a short and unhappy life, he wrote many books and articles on literary, satirical, religious and psychological themes, but the diversity and idiosyncratic style of his writing have contributed to a misunderstanding of his ideas. In this book--the only introduction to the full range of Kierkegaard's thought--Patrick Gardiner demonstrates how Kierkegaard developed his ideas and examines his thoughts in light of the doctrines on society developed by his contemporaries Marx and Feuerbach. Finally, he assesses the profound importance of Kierkegaard's ideas on the development of modern ways of thinking.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Later Printing edition (December 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192876422
• ISBN-13: 978-0192876423
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,710,373 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The example of the authentic individual , February 16, 2005

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Kierkegaard: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

Gardiner chooses to focus on Kierkegaard's difficulties and dilemnas in his own time. He tells the story of S.K.'s great renunciation of his Regina( The famous follow- up is his years later remark, " Had I had faith I would have married Regina") and speculates briefly on the motives. But there is tremendously more to be said about this including a question about Kierkegaard's real meaning for what he called ' his thorn in the flesh'. One logical but I agree not very pleasant speculation might have to do with S.K.'s sense of his own physical inadequacy given the terrible insults and sufferings he had been subject to because of his dwarfish physiognimy.
Gardiner outlines Kierkegaard's quarrel with the Church and his effort to define an authentic Christianity based on true inwardness. He also mentions the odd and ironic eulogy by Kierkegaard's older brother at his funeral where he on the one hand praises his brother's writing and on the other condemns him for the very crusade against false Christianity that S.K. dedicated himself to.
The description by Gardiner of Kierkegaard's first major work 'Either-Or' is excellent and he gives a deeper sense of the meaning of the ' aesthetic' and ' ethical ' for Kierkegaard. He too gives a good background to the revolt against Hegelianism, and shows how S.K. was not alone in this in his own time.
The great literary originality, the play between philosophy and literature, the invention of , and focusing on new religious categories are all parts of S.K.'s legacy to the world.
This book gives much, but only skims the surface of a thinker who with every reading is deeper and more complex and more ambiguous.
He is nonetheless for many in the world still , the example not only of the individual as authentic Christian, but the individual as authentic individual. .

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointment, April 19, 2008

By	Nathan Hahs - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Kierkegaard: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

I bought this book because I wanted to read a book about KIERKEGAARD. Instead I got one that focuses as much as Hegel and Kart as it does on Kierkegaard. I would not recommend this book. This is a disappointment because I have several other books in this series, Islam, Judaism, Descartes, etc, and they are all very well written. This one strays fromt he true topic way too often.

10 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Substandard Treatment of Kierkegaard, October 24, 2000

By	John Parsons (Mpls., MN) - See all my reviews

It is rather disappointing that professor Gardiner, who otherwise seems himself to be an astute and conscientious writer, so patently overlooks the essential character of Kierkegaard and Kierkegaard's struggle to exist in the "how" (not the "what") of the truth. Sadly, Gardiner seems to fall victim of becoming almost doctrinaire(!) about Kierkegaard -- quite an irony, esp. considering that SK anticipated such reconstructions by pedantic professors after he was long dead.

I do NOT recommend this book, for many reasons, but esp. since it vainly attempts to consider SK as a mere thinker, using the spurious canons of rational acceptability all too common among Anglophone philosophes who merely play with the truth -- and never dare to actually venture out and live it in their lives.

On the other hand, if you want to read Gardiner -- for Gardiner's sake -- and you wish to refine the game of reconstruction and dour pedantism, buy the book, by all means...