Publication Details

Abstract

Beginning with a consideration of one of the central methodological issues in contemporary Kierkegaard scholarship, this paper goes on to suggest that the tradition of reading Kierkegaard as a philosopher, or in the terms of philosophy, is a tradition of aestheticism. Calling upon the distinguishing features of the aesthete found in the work of Anthony Rudd and Patrick Stokes, I argue that the tradition of reading Kierkegaard as a philosopher has these same features; and so can be said to be a tradition of aestheticism. The paper goes on to make this case in detail with respect to Rudd’s book Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical and Stokes’ Kierkegaard’s Mirrors.