Anti-Climacus and Neo-Lockeanism: Towards a Kierkegaardian Theory of Personal Identity

in Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Herman Deuser and K. Brian Soderquist (eds) Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 2009 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009) pp.527-555

This paper attempts to situate Anti-Climacus' ontology of selfhood in the context of contemporary personal identity theory. In important respects, Anti-Climacus can be read as belonging to a tradition, originating with Locke, that sees psychological continuity as conferring selfhood or personhood. However, the curious temporal characteristics of spirit as presented in The Sickness Unto Death point to crucial differences between the Anti-Climacan approach to the question of self-constitution and that taken by mainstream neo-Lockean personal identity theorists.

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