Søren Kierkegaard Subjectivity, Irony, & the Crisis of Modernity

Søren Kierkegaard: Subjectivity, Irony, and the Crisis of Modernity examines the thought of Søren Kierkegaard, a unique figure, who has freeired, provoked, fascinated, and irritated people ever since he walked the streets of Copenhagen. At the end of his life, Kierkegaard said that the only model he had for his work was the Greek philosopher Socrates. This work takes this statement as its point of departure. Jon Stewart explores what Kierkegaard meant by this and to show how different aspects of his writing and argumentative strategy can be traced back to Socrates. The main focus is The Concept of Irony, which is a key text at the beginning of Kierkegaard's literary career. Although it was an early work, it nevertheless played a determining role in his later development and writings. Indeed, it can be said that it laid the groundwork for much of what would appear in his later famous books such as Either/Or and Fear and Trembling.

Jon Stewart is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He is the editor of the Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, Texts from Golden Age Denmark and Danish Golden Age Studies series. He is the co-editor of the Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook and the Kierkegaard Studies Monograph series. His publications include A Companion to Kierkegaard (2015), Kierkegaard's Relations to Hegel Reconsidered (2003), The Unity of Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit': A Systematic Interpretation (2011), and The Cultural Crisis of the Danish Golden Age: Heiberg, Martensen and Kierkegaard (2015).