PHILOSOPHY 5311
E.Duncan
BOOKS TO BUY (in the order in which they will be read) :
This course used to be called " Kierkegaard,Sartre,and Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Existentialism (but were afraid to ask)".I really don't know what to do with this course.There is too much to do,much more than could be covered in a year,much less five weeks.But we will do what we can.I'll lecture,but am much too old to do long........lectures,so please don't make me do that.PLEASE be ready to discuss things.
Present plans are to start by discussing the work of the man usually considered the first "existentialist",Soren Kierkegaard.I'll ask you to read a couple of his shorter things,listed above,but of course there is MUCH more to read and discuss.
The Kaufmann book is good to have,and has convenient selections from many other existentialists.Finally,we will spend a bit more time on the work and thought of Jean-Paul Sartre.
Again,it is hoped that you will read and be ready to discuss this and related material.As always,you will be expected to prepare a critical paper on some relevant (hopefully) topic of your own choosing (about 15-20 pages,please).
This material can be fun to read and even more fun to discuss.
KIERKEGAARD:A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
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Many readers have stated that the "Bibliographical Essay" in my book on Kierkegaard was the best part of that work.I suspect that's true. Unfortunately,the book was published in 1976 (reissued in 1991,I think),and was based on work done much earlier (1959-'62).Much has happened since then.But before we think about catching up,permit an old man two small bits of nostalgia.First,you might compare my essay with the bibliographical essay,"How Kierkegaard Got Into English",which Walter Lowrie added to his translation of S.K's Repetition (Princeton University Press,1941,reissued 1946).Before I leave my "Bibliographical Essay", recall that, in that essay, I noted that probably the first translation of substantial parts of Kierkegaard's work into English was made by a professor at the University of Texas, L. M. Hollander, under the title, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard--that work is now available on the Web. Another database, Religion-online, has several of Kierkegaard's works, in rather user-friendly versions. Also,for its unique historical importance,you should check out the Lectures on the Religious Thought of Soren Kierkegaard by Eduard Geismar (Augsburg Publishing House,Minneapolis,1937,reprinted 1938).Now for catching up.....Another bit of good news is that the Baylor libraries now have Web access to the Past Masters Database, full-text, on-line, which includes Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers.
A valuable resource with which to begin catching up is Soren Kierkegaard and his Critics,an International Bibliography of Criticism,compiled by Francois Lapointe (Greenwood Press,Westport,Connecticut,1980).This is a very thorough work,but now 20 years old. For a general introduction,consider Kierkegaard,in the Past Masters series,by Patrick Gardiner (Oxford University Press, New York,1988,reissued 1996).
I shall not attempt anything so thorough here, but I do wish to call attention to some major changes in recent Kierkegaard studies.The first difference one notes is that when I was a student working on my dissertation,the major translators of S.K. were David F. Swenson and then Walter Lowrie.From the first,the Princeton University Press took the lead in publishing English translations of Kierkegaard's works.Their new series of translations of S.K. are being done by Howard V. and Edna H. Hong.I really don't know how many volumes have been completed or are projected;I suspect the complete series will number 20-25 volumes.
Parallel with the Princeton series of translations is a series of commentaries,the International Kierkegaard Commentary,published by Mercer University Press in Macon,Georgia,and edited by a noted Kierkegaard scholar,Robert L.Perkins.See,for example,Volume 13 on The Corsair Affair (1990).A book not in the series,but probably should have been,is a very useful volume Perkins also edited, Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling:Critical Appraisals (the University of Alabama Press,1981).
One reason I personally decided to do more work on the Scottish Philosophers ,and less on Kierkegaard and Sartre ,was that I am a poor linguist;I don't read Danish.One person who accepted this challenge ,went to Copenhagen to study,etc.,is C.Stephen Evans.He is the author of many books on Kierkegaard and existentialism.Two of his best are Kierkegaard's"Fragments" and "Postscript":the Religious Philosophy of Johannes Climacus (Humanities Press International,Inc.,Atlantic Highlands,N.J.,1983),and Passionate Reason:Making Sense of Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments (Indiana University Press,Bloomington Indiana,1992).He also has a more recent work you might want to consider, Faith Beyond Reason: a Kierkegaardian Account (Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,1998).Evans is also the curator of the Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf's College,and editor of the Soren Kierkegaard Newsletter- and he is coming to Baylor!!
There is also an international newsletter,which is edited by Julia Watkin.Ms.Watkin served at the Kierkegaard Library in Copenhagen for many years ,and is less known for her own work than for her help with the research of others.A sample of her own writing is her essay"Pilgrim on Life's Way-Kierkegaard in the light of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress"in Kierkegaard conferences I--Denmark,edited by Birgit Britung (C.A.Reitzel,Copenhagen,1989).Ms. Watkin also has a more recent book on S.K.,Kierkegaard(Geoffrey Chapman,London,1997).
A problem many of us have in dealing with S.K. and his works is that we know so little about Kierkegaard's Denmark,its history,culture,religion,etc.A very helpful volume in this regard is Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark by Bruce Kirmmse (Indiana University Press,Bloomington,Indiana,1990);see also his later Encounters with Kierkegaard:a Life as Seen by His Contemporaries(Princeton University Press,Princeton,N.J.,1996).
At some point,we must call a halt,so permit me to list just five more books,and then stop. There is a volume on Kierkegaard in the Arguments of the Philosophers series,by Alastair Hannay (Routledge,London,1982).Of more particular interest to those of us who (as all Baylor students must!) care about religion are The Logic of Subjectivity :Kierkegaard's Philosophy of Religion by Louis P.Pojman (University of Alabama Press,1984),and Kierkegaard's Critique of Reason and Society by Merold Westphal (The Pennsylvania State University Press,University Park ,Pennsylvania ,1987).Westphal was also part of a later effort,Kierkegaard in Post/Modernity,edited by Martin J Matustik and Merold Westphal (Indiana University Press,Bloomington,1995).Finally,it is important to consult the Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard,edited by Alastair Hannay and Gordon D. Marino (Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,1998).
This is not primarily a course on Sartre,so I have an excuse for brevity ,though it should be noted that Sartre was a very popular philosopher,so the literature is vast. I shall list only three books ,all secondary sources.First there is a volume on Sartre in the Library of Living Philosophers series,The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre,edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp (Open Court,Chicago,1981). See also the Cambridge Campanion to Sartre,edited by Christina Howells (Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,1992).I also enjoyed the more recent Apostles of Sartre:Existentialism in America,1945-1963 by Ann Fulton (Northwestern University Press,Evanston,Illinois,1999). Ms. Fulton reminds us that much of the early work on the existentialists appeared, not in philosophical journals, but in language and literary journals, such as the Yale French Studies; Baylor students can now access this valuable periodical, plus several Philosophical journals, on-line , through a new service called JSTOR. There is also a new series of books , called the Wadsworth Philosophers Series, which has a volume , On Sartre, by Richard Kamber, that I found helpful (Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning, Inc., Belmont, California, 2000): I thought his second chapter, "Life and Works"(pp.7-40),especially useful. I have not read it yet, but the Wadsworth/Thomson series also has a volume, On de Beauvoir, by Sally J. Scholz (the bibliographical data is the same as the Sartre volume).
Yes,of course there's lots more,but this should be enough to keep us busy for a while.
For this entire course,a good place to start on the web is my colleague Scott Moore's Notebook for Contemporary Continental Philosophy,and perhaps a site dedicated to the Realm of Existentialism.
For Kierkegaard,it might be well to begin with general reference works.There is a second Kierkegaard site in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. There is also a site called Kierkegaard on the Internet that has a lot of material, plus useful links.You should also consult the Howard V. Hong and Edna H.Hong Kierkegaard Library.Julia Watkin's website has International Kierkegaard Information. Another useful source with loads of info is Bjorn's Guide to Philosophy.There is also an edition of Fear and Trembling on the Web.
It is well known that Kierkegard was heavily influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach, especially Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity,so you might wish to check that out.I have never understood Hegel,but his philosophy was a principal target for S..K.,so you might want to give his work a try. Of course,Kierkegaard was also influenced by Kant (aren't we all?).The literature here is really vast,but this is a place to start, or you can find it all in the syllabus for my Kant seminar.
As I indicated above,there is a lot out there on Sartre,so we must be content with general references.Well,perhaps not quite... there is a Jean-Paul Sartre Archive that deserves special attention, and we really need to emphasize his historically important essay , "Existentialism is a Humanism". For the sake of being sexually inclusive, we should mention Sartre's companion, Simone de Beauvoir, a formidable philosopher in her own right.And, as everyone knows,Sartre was a student of the phenomenology of Husserl.
ENJOY.
