Kierkegaard's Uncanny Encounter with Schopenhauer, 1854

in Roman Kralik et al (eds) Kierkegaard and Great Philosophers (Acta Kierkegaardiana Vol. II) (Mexico: Sociedad Iberoamericana de Estudios Kierkegaardianos, 2007)

This paper explores Kierkegaard's encounter with the work of Arthur Schopenhauer, as recorded in a series of journal entries from mid-1854. Kierkegaard finds in Schopenhauer both an uncannily similar authorial voice to his own, and a cautionary picture of the failure of authorial integrity. By critiquing Schopenhauer's failure to inhabit his own philosophical categories, Kierkegaard reflexively sharpens his own conception of what his authorial project demands.

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