Kierkegaard's Critique of Eudaimonism: A Reassessment

Interpreters are less univocal than one might think in assessing Søren Kierkegaard's attitude toward eudaimonism. Through an analysis of several key texts from across Kierkegaard's authorship, I argue that existing interpretations do not convincingly address the relationship between Kierke...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religious ethics
Main Author: Webb, Carson (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2017]
In: Journal of religious ethics
Year: 2017, Volume: 45, Issue: 3, Pages: 437-462
Further subjects:B Ethics
B Eudaimonism
B Arthur Schopenhauer
B Søren Kierkegaard
B Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
B Immanuel Kant
B John Davenport
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Interpreters are less univocal than one might think in assessing Søren Kierkegaard's attitude toward eudaimonism. Through an analysis of several key texts from across Kierkegaard's authorship, I argue that existing interpretations do not convincingly address the relationship between Kierkegaard's critique of eudaimonism and his mid-nineteenth-century context, which was dominated by post-Kantian idealists. While I am sympathetic to aspects of deontological and aretaic interpretations, a contextual reading shows that his critique centers on what he diagnoses as the enclosure of the modern self. This puts his critique of eudaimonism in the purview of his moral psychology and in continuity with his critique of romanticism.
ISSN:1467-9795
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/jore.12185