Volume 2, Tome I: Kierkegaard and the Greek World - Socrates and Plato Kierkegaard and the Greek World - Socrates and Plato

The articles in this volume employ source-work research to trace Kierkegaard's understanding and use of authors from the Greek tradition. A series of figures of varying importance in Kierkegaard's authorship are treated, ranging from early Greek poets to late Classical philosophical schools. In general it can be said that the Greeks collectively constitute one of the single most important body of sources for Kierkegaard's thought. He studied Greek from an early age and was profoundly inspired by what might be called the Greek spirit. Although he is generally considered a Christian thinker, he was nonetheless consistently drawn back to the Greeks for ideas and impulses on any number of topics. He frequently contrasts ancient Greek philosophy, with its emphasis on the lived experience of the individual in daily life, with the abstract German philosophy that was in vogue during his own time. It has been argued that he modeled his work on that of the ancient Greek thinkers specifically in order to contrast his own activity with that of his contemporaries.

Contents: Preface; Part I Plato's Socrates: Apology: Kierkegaard's Socratic point of view, Paul Muench; Meno: Kierkegaard and the doctrine of recollection, David D. Possen; Phaedo and Parmenides: Eternity, time, and the moment, or from the abstract philosophical to the concrete Christian, Janne Kylliäinen; Phaedrus: Kierkegaard on Socrates' self-knowledge - and sin, David D. Possen; Protagoras and Republic: Kierkegaard on Socratic irony, David D. Possen; Symposium: Kierkegaard and Platonic eros, Rick Anthony Furtak; Theaetetus: giving birth or Kierkegaard's Socratic maieutics, Marius Timmann Mjaaland; Cumulative Plato bibliography, Katalin Nun. Part II Other Greek Sources on Socrates: Aristophanes: Kierkegaard's understanding of the Socrates of the Clouds, Eric Ziolkowski; Xenophon: Kierkegaard's use of the Socrates of the Memorabilia, William McDonald. Part III Later Interpretations of Socrates: Kierkegaard's Socrates sources: 18th- and 19th-century Danish Scholarship, Tonny Aagaard Olesen; Kierkegaard's Socrates sources: 18th-and 19th-century Germanophone scholarship, Harald Steffes; Indexes

Jon Stewart is an Associate Research Professor in the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.