Humour and Irony in Kierkegaard’s Thought PDF
Preview Humour and Irony in Kierkegaard’s Thought
Humour and Irony in Kierkegaard's Thought John Lippitt lippitt/92345/crc 25/7/00 12:51 pm Page 1 Humour and Irony in Kierkegaard’s Thought lippitt/92345/crc 25/7/00 12:51 pm Page 2 Also by John Lippitt and from the same publishers NIETZSCHE’S FUTURES (editor) lippitt/92345/crc 25/7/00 12:51 pm Page 3 Humour and Irony in Kierkegaard’s Thought John Lippitt Senior Lecturer in Philosophy University of Hertfordshire lippitt/92345/crc 25/7/00 12:51 pm Page 4 First published in Great Britain 2000 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0–333–77667–4 First published in the United States of America 2000 by ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, LLC, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 0–312–23474–0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lippitt, John. Humour and irony in Kierkegaard’s thought / John Lippitt. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–312–23474–0 (hardcover) 1. Kierkegaard, So/ren, 1813–1855—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Irony. 3. Kierkegaard, So/ren, 1813–1855—Humour. I. Title. B4378.I76 L57 2000 198'.9—dc21 00–026984 ©John Lippitt 2000 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire ‘…[I]nwardness in love does not mean to get married seven times to Danish girls, and then to go for the French, the Italian, etc., but to love one and the same and yet be continually renewed in the same love, so that it continually flowers anew in mood and exuberance…’ – Johannes Climacus, Concluding Unscientific Postscript To Jo – for showing me that Climacus is right This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements ix Reference Key to Kierkegaard’s Texts xi 1 Introduction 1 2 Illusion and Satire: Climacus as Satirist 12 3 Moral Perfectionism and Exemplars 27 4 Climacus as Humorist 47 5 The Comic and the Existence-Spheres 72 6 Imagination, ‘Transforming Vision’ and the Comic 104 7 The Legitimacy of the Comic 121 8 Irony and the Subjective Thinker 135 9 Humour, Religion and the Virtues 158 Notes and References 175 Bibliography 196 Index 206 vii This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements This study began life as a doctoral thesis in philosophy at the University of Essex. My supervisors were Michael Weston and – briefly, when Mike was on sabbatical – Stephen Mulhall. I would like to thank both for their time and encouragement, and for questions and sugges- tions that were often challenging, always helpful, and frequently both simultaneously. David Owen read the penultimate draft, and was also extremely helpful. Sometimes he seemed to know what I wanted to say better than I did, and he also provided some useful points that have forced me to shift ground slightly on one or two issues. For comments on drafts of various parts of the study at different points of its develop- ment, and for other forms of encouragement, I am grateful to C. Stephen Evans, Dan Hutto, Michael Lotti, Gordon D. Marino, Jeff Mason, Paul Muench, George Pattison and Anthony Rudd, as well as the participants in various conferences and seminars at which I have given papers. (Apologies to any others I have inadvertently omitted.) I would also like to thank two libraries for awards. First, the Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library, at St Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, whose residential Summer Fellowship pro- gramme has proven invaluable, both in terms of the Library’s resources and the opportunities it provides to meet fellow Kierkegaard scholars from all over the globe. The world of Kierkegaard studies owes the Hongs, together with Gordon Marino and Cynthia Lund, the Library’s current curator and assistant curator, a tremendous debt. Second, thanks are also due to St Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden, Wales, whose award of a Murray McGregor Memorial Scholarship enabled me to spend several weeks working there on two separate occasions. On the subject of awards, I would also like to express my sincere thanks both to the Arts and Humanities Research Board, and to the University of Hertfordshire. The AHRB gave me a Research Leave award which, together with the ‘matching’ semester of relief from teaching and administrative duties awarded by the University under the terms of that scheme, has gone to make up the year’s sabbatical that has finally made possible the completion of this book. I would also like to thank the University of Hertfordshire for its earlier support in the form of payment of PhD tuition fees. ix
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