Volume 2, Tome II: Kierkegaard and the Greek World - Aristotle and Other Greek Authors Kierkegaard and the Greek World - Aristotle and Other Greek Authors

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: Part I Aristotle: Organon and Metaphysics IV: the first principles of logic and the debate about mediation, Håvard Løkke and Arild Waaler; Physics and Metaphysics: change, modal categories and agency, Håvard Løkke and Arild Waaler; Nichomachean Ethics: ignorance and relationships, Håvard Løkke; Poetics: the rebirth of tragedy at the end of modernity, Daniel Greenspan; Rhetoric: eloquence, faith and probability, Heiko Schulz; Cumulative Aristotle bibliography, Katalin Nun. Part II Other Greek Philosophers: Diogenes Laertius: Kierkegaard's source and inspiration, Nicolae Irina; The Eleatics: Kierkegaard's metaphysical considerations of being and motion, Jon Stewart; Heraclitus: Presocratic ideas of motion, change and opposites in Kierkegaard's thought, Finn Gredal Jensen; The Skeptics: Kierkegaard and classical skepticism, Anthony Rudd; The Sophists: Kierkegaard's interpretation of Socrates and the Sophists, K. Brian Söderquist; The Stoics: Kierkegaard on the passion for apathy, Rick Anthony Furtak. Part III Poets, Dramatists and Historians: Aeschylus: Kierkegaard and early Greek tragedy, Finn Gredal Jensen; Euripides: Kierkegaard and the ancient tragic heroes, Nicolae Irina; Herodotus: traces of The Histories in Kierkegaard's writings, Finn Gredal Jensen; Hesiod: Kierkegaard and the Greek gods, Nicolae Irina; Homer: Kierkegaard's use of the Homeric poems, Finn Gredal Jensen; Plutarch: a constant cultural reference, Nicolae Irina; Sophocles: the tragic of Kierkegaard's modern Antigone, Nicolae Irina; Indexes

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