Freedom and its misuses : Kierkegaard on anxiety and despair

202 Pages·1996·0.88 MB·English

by  Kierkegaard

Freedom and
Its Misuses:
Kierkegaard on Anxiety and Dispair
Gregory R. Beabout
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beabout, Gregory R., 1960-
Freedom and its misuses : Kierkegaard on anxiety and despair /
Gregory R. Beabout.
p. cm. — (Marquette studies in philosophy ; #12)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87462-612-9 (pbk.)
1. Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855—Contributions in philosophical
concept of self. 2. Self (Philosophy) 3. Free will and
determinism. 4. Liberty. 5. Anxiety. 6. Despair. 7. Kierkegaard,
Søren, 1813-1855. Syldommen til døden. I. Title. II. Series.
B4378.S4B33 1996
198’.9—dc20 95.50161
Printed in the United States of America
© 1996 Marquette University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
Contents
Acknowledgments .............................................................. v
Foreword ........................................................................... vii
Abbreviations....................................................................... x
Chapter 1
Introduction .................................................................. 1
Chapter 2
A Preparatory Examination of Several Topics
Related to The Concept of Anxiety............................ 15
Chapter 3
Anxiety in The Concept of Anxiety........................... 35
Chapter 4
A Preparatory Examination of Several Topics
Related to The Sickness Unto Death ......................... 71
Chapter 5
Despair in The Sickness Unto Death......................... 83
Chapter 6
Drawing Out the Relationship Between Anxiety
and Despair in Kierkegaard’s Writings................... 115
Chapter 7
Freedom and Its Misuses......................................... 135
Notes ................................................................................ 159
Bibliography.................................................................... 173
Index ................................................................................ 187

Acknowledgements
There are many people and institutions that I would
like to thank for their influence and help, both direct and
indirect, on this book. I have benefited from many fine
teachers. While an undergraduate at Loyola University
Chicago, my teachers and friends helped me think about
the question of freedom and what it means to be a hu-
man being. In graduate school, Thomas Anderson intro-
duced me to the serious study of Kierkegaard and helped
refine my questions about the meaning of freedom.
Howard Kainz encouraged me in the study of Kierke-
gaard as well. Many people have read drafts of this manu-
script in various stages, and I have often borrowed their
suggestions. I would like to thank especially Eileen
Sweeney, Michael Vater, Walter Stohrer, Daryl Wennemann
and Michael Wreen for their comments. Twice I spent
time at the Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library
at St. Olaf’s in Northfield, Minnesota. These visits were
fruitful, both because of the well organized research fa-
cilities at the library and the environment that encour-
aged reflection. In 1988 I received a Smith Fellowship
and in 1992 I was awarded a Saint Louis University Fac-
ulty Development Grant. I am grateful for this support. At
vi FREEDOM AND ITS MISUSES
St. Olaf’s, I benefitted from conversations with C. Stephen
Evans and the Hongs, as well as from the help of Cynthia
Lund and others. I would like to thank my research assis-
tants, John Morris and Nicholas Plants. Andy Tallon has
been a great support in many capacities, both in reading
and commenting on the text and especially as editor. My
greatest debt in this book, at least with regard to a direct
influence for my thinking, is to John D. Jones. Always
willing to engage me as an individual with questions, this
project grew out of our very slow and careful reading of
Kierkegaard, much of which occurred in his living room.
The central question of the book arose while we were
walking and talking together at the park near his house.
Through his ability to question, to probe, and to encour-
age, his positive influence permeates this book far more
than might be recognized. In gratitude, this book is dedi-
cated to him. Of course, there is the far different kind of
debt I owe to my family—my parents, grandparents, and
especially my wife. Not only am I grateful for the endless
hours she spent listening to me work out my ideas, pa-
tiently listening as I read draft after draft, but for the lov-
ing support that comes only in a family.
G.R.B. St. Louis
Thanksgiving, 1995
Foreword
This small and solid work is everything one hopes
for in a book on Kierkegaard. It treats him as both
a great thinker and a corrective to our time and is
both scholarly and popular in the best sense of those
terms. For Kierkegaard scholars it provides detailed and
careful accounts of his key concepts of anxiety and despair,
comments on much of the existing secondary literature
on these topics, provides many helpful etymological in-
sights and even contains a perceptive and generously noted
use of my own Indices. It also does nice things like distin-
guishing between the “lower pseudonymous works,” the
“upbuilding works,” and the “higher pseudonymous
works.” It shows why Sartre is no match for Kierkegaard,
why and how Alasdair MacIntyre has misrepresented him
so badly and why finally Freud has nothing to say about
human freedom. For the general reader it explains the
radical significance of these Kierkegaardian concepts for
our understanding of freedom and shows how they might
yet serve to salvage a dream gone obviously and terribly
wrong. I suspect that an equally careful treatment of the
relevant texts would show that Kierkegaard is not an “in-
dividualist” but Professor Beabout has done a great deal
to clarify and connect anxiety, despair and freedom and
viii FREEDOM AND ITS MISUSES
those who care about humanity can profit greatly from
his labors.
Almost by accident I began reading this work late on
Good Friday evening and finished it at noon on Saturday
but in retrospect perhaps this was a mistake. Its publica-
tion is an occasion for joy and hope and no doubt I should
have left the end until Easter morning.
Alastair McKinnon
Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre
McGill University
Easter, 1995
To John D. Jones
With thanks
for encouragement and direction
The age is liberal, broadminded, and philosophical; the
sacred claims of personal liberty have everywhere a host
of appreciated and applauded spokesmen. Nevertheless,
it seems to me that the case is not always apprehended in
a sufficiently dialectical manner . . .
Søren Kierkegaard
You were called to be free. But do not let this freedom
become an excuse to let your desires control you.
St. Paul
ABBREVIATIONS
The following abbreviations of works by Kierkegaard will
be used.
CA The Concept of Anxiety
CDisc Christian Discourses
CDread The Concept of Dread (Lowrie Translation)
CUP Concluding Unscientific Postscript to
the Philosophical Fragments
ED Edifying Discourses
E/O I, II Either/Or, volumes I and II
FT Fear and Trembling
GS The Gospel of Suffering
Pap. Søren Kierkegaard’s Papier
PF Philosophical Fragments
PH Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing
PV The Point of View for My Work as an Author
R Repetition
SKJP Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers
SLW Stages on Life’s Way
SUD The Sickness Unto Death
TC Training in Christianity