The concept of irony, with continual reference to Socrates : together with notes of Schelling's Berlin lectures

663 Pages·1989·52.46 MB·English

by  Kierkegaard

THE CONCEPT OF IRONY
WITH CONTINUAL REFERENCE TO SOCRATES
KIERKEGAARD'S WRITINGS, II

THE CONCEPT OF IRONY
WITH CONTINUAL REFERENCE TO SOCRATES
by S0ren Kierkegaard
together with
NOTES OF SCHELLING'S BERLIN LECTURES
Edited and Translated
with Introduction and Notes by
Howard V. Hong and
Edna H. Hong
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
© 1989
Copyright by Howard V. Hong
41
Published by Princeton University Press, William Street
08540
Princeton, New Jersey
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data
1813-1855.
Kie,kegaa,d, Seren,
The concept of i,ony, with continual reference to Socrates.
2)
(Kierkegaard's writings;
Om
Translation of begrebet ironi.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
2. 3. 1775-
1. Irony. Socrates. Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von,
1854. 1912- .
I. Hong, Howard Vincent, II. Hong, Edna Hatlestad,
1913-. 1813-1855. 1978; 2.
III. Title. IV. Series: Kierkegaard, S"rin, Works. English.
84373.042E5 1989 190 89-3642
0-691-07354-6 0-691-02072-8
ISBN ISBN (pbk.)
1992
Second printing, with corrections, and first paperback printing,
Preparation of this volume has been made possible in part by a grant
from the Division of Research Programs of the National Endowment
for the Humanities, an independent federal agency
Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources
Designed by Frank Mahood
http://pup. princeton.edu
P,inted in the United States of Ame,ica
11 13 15 16 14 12
ISBN-13: 978-0-691-02072-3 (pbk.)
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION Vll
The Concept of Irony,
with Continual Reference to Socrates
1
THESES
5
Part One
THE POSITION OF SOCRATES
VIEWED AS IRONY
7
INTRODUCTION
9
I The View Made Possible
13
II The Actualization of the View
157
III The View Made Necessary
198
ApPENDIX
Hegel's View of Socrates
219
Part Two
THE CONCEPT OF IRONY
239
VI
Contents
INTRODUCTION
241
OBSERVATIONS FOR ORIENTATION
246
The World-Historical Validity oflrony, the Irony of Socrates
259
Irony after Fichte
272
Irony as a Controlled Element, the Truth oflrony
324
Addendum
NOTES OF SCHELLING'S BERLIN LECTURES
333
SUPPLEMENT 413
Key to References 414
Original Title Pages of 416
The Concept of Irony
Original First Page (manuscript) of
Notes of Schelling's
Berlin Lectures 420
Selected Entries from Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers
Pertaining to
The Concept of Irony 423
EDITORIAL ApPENDIX 457
Acknowledgments 459
Collation of in the Danish
The Concept of Irony
Editions of Kierkegaard's Collected Works 461
NOTES 465
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 597
INDEX 599
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
On October 30, 1830, S0ren Aabye Kierkegaard entered the
University of Copenhagen. On September 29, 1841, he pub
licly defended his dissertation,
The Concept ofI rony, with Con
For about eight of those eleven
tinual Reference to Socrates.
years, he appeared to be a typical perennial student. In the last
three years, however, he not only completed intensive prepa
ration for the climactic degree examination but wrote the 350-
page dissertation and a considerable portion of Part II of
In the midst of this concentrated work, he became
Either/Or.
engaged to Regine Olsen (September 10, 1840) and termi
nated the engagement within a fortnight after the dissertation
defense.
Although the student years stretched out inordinately,
Kierkegaard was not idle. He attended lectures and read ex
tensively and intensively, but his mind was more preoccupied
with his own creative thoughts than with formal study and
completion of work for a degree. Four themes were of con
tinuing interest: the ideas symbolized by Don Juan, Faust, the
Master Thief, and the Wandering Jew.! During the period
1834-1838, he wrote a number of pieces for J ohan Ludvig Hei
berg's an unpublished and unpro
Kjebenhavns flyvende Post,2
duced play,
The Battle between the Old and the New Soap-Cel
and his first book, (on
lars, From the Papers ofO ne Still Living3
Hans Christian Andersen's Journal entries
Only a Fiddler).
from 1838 include indications of contemplated writing: "I
would like to write a novella with my own mottoes. Motto:
I See Supplement, pp. 423-25,429 (Pap. I A 11, C 66, A 72, C 69,58; II A
597). See also I 769; II 1177-85 II A 55; I A 88, 104, C 58, A 227, 292;
JP (Pap.
II A 29, 50, 605); VII, pp. 28,37,60, 100.
2 See "Articles from Student Days," Early Polemical Writings, KWI (SVXIII
5-39).
3 Both The Battle between the Old and the New Soap-Cellars (Pap. II B 1-21)
and (S XIII 46-92) are included in
From the Papers of One Still Living V Early
I.
Polemical Writings, KW
Vlll Historical Introduction
Fantasy for a post horn";4 "I would like to issue a publication
for :n:aQ<xvE'KQOL [beside the dead],"5
Other journal entries and reading notes (on Jean Paul, Ha
mann, Wieland, Erdmann, Baur, and Grulich) from 1836 on
ward touch on Socrates, satire, humor, and irony,6 and an en
try dated September 25, 1837, reads, "Now I know a suitable
subject for a dissertation: concerning the concept of satire
among the ancients, the reciprocal relation of the various Ro
man satirists to each other."7
No extant journa~ntries touch specifically on the decision
to write on irony, but two important entries on Kierkegaard's
favorite teacher, philosophy professor Poul Martin M0ller,
point to a decision to write a substantial work. "I recall the
words of the dying Poul M0ller, which he often said to me
while he lived and which, if! remember correctly, he enjoined
Sibbern8 to repeat (and in addition the words: Tell the little
Kierkegaard that he should be careful not to layout too big a
plan of study, for that has been very detrimental to me): You
are so thoroughly polemical that it is quite appalling."9 M01-
ler's death on March 13, 1838, seemed to be an activating and
integrating occasion that brought Kierkegaard's far-ranging
mind back to his initial resolve to write a dissertation. "Such
a long period has again elapsed in which I have been unable to
concentrate on the least little thing-now I must make another
attempt. Poul M0ller is dead."10
V 5290 II A 683).
4 JP (Pap.
5 JP V 5295 (Pap. II A 690).
6 See Supplement, pp. 425, 436 (Pap. I A 125; II A 737). See alsoJP II 1669-
1736.
7 See Supplement, pp. 434-35 (Pap. II A 166).
8 Frederik Christian Sibbem (1785-1872), professor of philosophy, Univer
sity of Copenhagen, 1813-70.
9 JP VI 6888 (Pap. XI' A 225). See Supplement, pp. 432-33 (Pap. II A 102),
for an entry on a conversation with M01ler about irony and humor during the
evening of June 30, 1837. In discussing what became Kierkegaard's disser
tation, M01ler possibly also had Kierkegaard in mind as his successor as pro
fessor of philosophy. See Troels Frederik Troels-Lund,
Bakkehus og Solbjerg,
I-III (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1920-22), III, p. 207; Eduard Geismar,
Silren
I-VI (Copenhagen: Gad, 1926-28), I, p. 89.
Kierkegaard,
10 JP V 5302 (Pap. II A 209).
Historical Introduction IX
The second and even more important activating occasion
was the death of his father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard. In
September 1837, the twenty-four-year-old Sf2Iren had taken
private quarters and lived somewhat estranged from his fa
ther. In the spring of1838, there was a reconciliationll and for
Sf2Iren an experience of At the end of that
"indescribable joy."12
summer, M. P. Kierkegaard died. Kierkegaard was pro
foundly shaken by his father's death and resolved to fulfill his
father's hope and expectation for him. He decided to resume
and complete work required for a degree, "a pursuit that does
not interest me in the least and that therefore does not get done
very fast,"13 as he wrote inJune 1835. But now he thought that
he had no alternative. 14 Even though he felt as unfitted for the
task as Sarah and Abraham were for parenthood, 15 he decided
to take the plunge of disciplined preparationl6 in order to ful
fill his father's wish.17 In a conversation with an old friend,
Hans Bmchner, Kierkegaard related that his father had once
said to him, " 'It would be a good thing for you ifI were dead.
Then you might still perhaps become something. But as long
as I live you will not.' "18 Brf2lchner also records Kierkegaard's
decision recounted in the same conversation: " 'So long as fa
ther lived, however, I was able to defend my thesis that I ought
not to take it [the examination). But when he was dead, I had
to take over his part in the debate as well as my own, and then
I could no longer hold out, but had to decide to read for the
examination.' He did so, with great energy."19 This decision
meant that the work and the writing under way on irony were
set aside until after the examination July 3, 1840, and a pil-
11 See Supplement, p. 437 (Pap. II A 231, 233).
12 See ibid.
13 See Supplement, pp. 424, 437-38 (Pap. I A 72; II A 807).
14 See Supplement, p. 438 (Pap. II A 422).
15 See Supplement, p. 439 (Pap. II A 490).
16 See Supplement, pp. 439-40 (Pap. II A 497, 534; III A 35).
17 See Supplement, p. 440 (Pap. III A 73).
18 Hans Bmchner, Erindringer over S"ren Kierkegaard (Copenhagen: 1953),
7, p. 23; "The Recollections," tr. T. H.
Glimpses and Impressions ofKierkegaard,
Croxall (Digswell Place, Welwyn, Herts.: Nisbet, 1959), p. 11.
19 Ibid., p. 10.