Review - Kierkegaard's Concept of Despair - Philosophy

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Kierkegaard's
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by Michael Theunissen All Topic Reviews

Princeton University A Theory of Feelings
Press, 2005 "My Madness Saved Me"
Review by Kamuran 10 Good Questions about Life and Death
Godelek, Ph.D. 12 Modern Philosophers
Nov 3rd 2005 (Volume 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a
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Kierkegaard, despair is one of the most significant
A Companion to Genethics book review site
human emotions
that provides the spur to fruitful
A Companion to Genethics Metapsychology. We
thought about the nature of the human condition.
A Companion to Hume feature over 7600 in-
Understanding what Kierkegaard wrote on despair
A Companion to Kant depth reviews of a wide
is vital not only because it
illuminates his thought
A Companion to Phenomenology and range of books and DVDs
as a whole, but because his account of despair in
Existentialism written by our reviewers
The Sickness unto Death is the
cornerstone of
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existentialism. A Companion to the Philosophy of Action and perspectives. We
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Michael Theunissen in Kierkegaard's
A Companion to the Philosophy of
Concept of Despair
articulates Kierkegaard's weekly and add more
Literature
theory of despair in a detailed and than thirty new reviews
A Conceptual History of Psychology
comprehensible
manner. What makes each month. Our editor is
Theunissen's study on Kierkegaard's theory of Christian Perring, PhD. To
despair as the
best and the most interesting contact him, use one of
treatment of the subject is his analytical
approach RELATED TOPICS the forms available here.
into The Sickness unto Death.
Such an approach
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not only contradicts Kierkegaard's self
Access our reviews
conception, it also
collides with the currently
directly via
prevalent way of dealing with him. It may be
'metapsychology.net'
assumed that Kierkegaard would have been to
concede that philosophy is contained
in his
Christian psychology of despair. But he Metapsychology Online
undoubtedly related the
philosophical part of his reviewers normally
work to the element subordinated in a whole, which is
of a religious nature. Theunissen seems to receive gratis review
deal with Kierkegaard's analysis of
despair as a piece of philosophy that can be taken out of the copies of the items they
whole to a
certain extent. Thus, Theunissen primarily concerns himself primarily in
explicating the review.
issue itself. Metapsychology Online
receives a commission
Kierkegaard in the Preface to The Sickness unto Death explicitly defines despair as
from Amazon.com for
dialectical:
"I would call attention once and for all to the fact that in this whole
book, as the title
purchases through this
indeed says, despair is conceived as the cure. So
dialectical is despair" (1970, p. 143). In
site, which helps us send
concordance with Kierkegaard's
treatment of despair, Theunissen's Kierkegaard's
Concept of
review copies to
Despair is also divided into three parts that form relatively
contained units. The first study entitled
reviewers. Please
"The Existential Dialectical
Basic Assumption of Kierkegaard's Analysis of Despair" exposes the
support us by making
methodical structure of The Sickness unto
Death and, mainly, from its beginning with the self,
your Amazon.com
  explaining the
methodological and anthropological assumptions of Kierkegaard's analysis of  
purchases through our
despair. The second study entitled "On the Transcending Critique of
Kierkegaard's Analysis of
Amazon links. We thank
Despair" is formulated on the assumption that
the immediate subject is not despair, but rather the
you for your support!
self. Thus, by formulating
despair, in a way, on the basis of the self, the study seeks despair on a
basis
that is at the same time removed from the self. In the summarizing conclusion
Theunissen

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Review - Kierkegaard's Concept of Despair - Philosophy

turns his attention once more to the dialectic in The Sickness unto Death. Because as
Kierkegaard
himself pointed out in an entry entitled "A Report about The Sickness unto Death" in his
Journal
"there is one difficulty about this book: it is too dialectical
and strict to permit of the employment
of rhetoric, of revival, of moving
effect...The fact is that before I begin to employ the rhetorical I
always must
have the dialectical at my fingertips, must go through it many times. This was
not the
case with this subject" (in 1970, p. 135).

Because Kierkegaard designates

his whole concern a dialectic of existence and also Join our e-mail list!:
because and primarily with
regard to the dialectic of an existence that has refracted relation to its Metapsychology New
own
structure, Theunissen defines the existential-dialectical principle of
Kierkegaard's analysis of Review
despair as "we do not will to be directly what
we are" (p. 5). Theunissen argues that for Announcements: Sent
Kierkegaard, the fundamental
characteristic of despair is the desire of the self "not to be what it out monthly, these
is". Kierkegaard himself translates the immediately despaired willing to
be a self into a willing to be announcements list
of what we are not. Then, Theunissen rightly
points out that "it becomes clear that in despairingly our recent reviews. To
willing to be a
self, we simply want to be what we are not" (p. 11). subscribe, click here.

With the elucidation of this

fundamental principle, the task set for Theunissen is the Interested in becoming
reconstruction of
Kierkegaard's analysis of despair and the determination of its historical
place. a book reviewer for
According to Theunissen, the reconstruction of the theory outlined in The Sickness unto Death can Metapsychology?
be oriented toward the proposed compartmentalization of being, to which we relate negatively, Currently, we
into the pre-given Dasein, the being human, and the self. Thus, after going through
these three especially need
dimensions of being in despair interpreted in terms of an
existential dialectic, Theunissen's aim is thoughtful reviewers
to see whether it holds up by moving
Kierkegaard's conception of not-being-in-despair into the for books in fiction,
perspective of his
fundemantal principle" (p. 9). He sorts through the apparently chaotic
text of self-help and popular
The Sickness unto Death to explain what Kierkegaard meant by the
"self", how and why individuals psychology. To apply,
want to flee their selves, and how he
believed they could reconnect with their selves. In addition to write to our editor.
articulating
and evaluating Kierkegaard's concept of despair, Theunissen relates
Kierkegaard's
ideas to those of Heidegger, Sartre and other twentieth century
philosophers. Metapsychology
Online Reviews
Theunissen argues that
Kierkegaard secretly likes to prove the existence of God by way of
the existence
of despair (p. 11). In fact, Kierkegaard in The
Sickness unto Death (in the last word
of the book which repeats one of the
first words) gives, if not the prescription for medication of this
sickness in
the self, at least the precise formula for health, that is, for the condition
of the self
when this sickness is completely eradicated: that the self "by
relating itself to its own self and by Promote your
willing to be itself is grounded
transparently in the Power which constituted it". And "this", he
says Page too
emphatically "is the definition of faith"(1970, p. 262).

Kierkegaard's Concept of
Despair provides a fresh and innovative analysis of Kierkegaard's
concept
of despair. Contrary to the literature on Kierkegaard that is often content to
paraphrase, Metapsychology Online
Theunissen articulates Kierkegaard's theory of despair in a
detailed and comprehensible manner Reviews
and confronts it with alternatives.
Theunissen's analysis of Kierkegaard's concept of analysis, ISSN 1931-5716
besides its being
the best and the most interesting treatment of the subject, also serves to
bridge
the gap between the continental and analytic traditions in philosophy. I
believe this book provides Follow @metapsych
an extremely useful framework for philosophers,
theologians and historians who are interested in
doing some future analytic
work on Kierkegaard and also in existentialism.

© 2005 Kamuran Godelek

Kamuran
Godelek, Ph.D., Mersin University, Department
of Philosophy, Mersin, TURKEY

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