SØREN KIERKEGAARD AND THE CHALLENGE OF EXISTENCE

Transcription

1 SØREN KIERKEGAARD AND THE CHALLENGE OF EXISTENCE Kierkegaard and the Challenge of Existence is a course in English for all international students offered each semester. Søren Kierkegaard is a fascinating and famous Danish philosopher/writer in fact, the only Danish thinker of undisputed international rank and legend. Apart from being considered as the father of existentialism, his unorthodox ideas are discussed in and can be connected to virtually every subject area within the humanities. Kierkegaard s works revolve around basic human experiences such as lust, despair, anxiety, love, morality, passion, absurdity and God. In particular, Kierkegaard claimed to present a complete summary of the possible ways in which we can live our lives or exist. At the same time, he analysed and criticized these ways thoroughly in order to judge to what extent they may give us a true point of orientation. Every lecture presupposes a short reading of not more than five pages and will provide sufficient room for discussion where we raise fundamental questions, such as what we can at all know, how we should at all be and act and what we can at all hope for as finite human beings. It is the past experience and our very stimulus that students from different disciplines profit from one another. The course also integrates a City Walk, which can be characterized as a walk through Kierkegaard s odd personal life as well as the screening of the momentous and deeply Kierkegaardian Danish movie Breaking the Waves / Lars von Trier. The lectures do not presuppose specialized knowledge and will introduce the respective themes without jargon. Kierkegaard s ideas are original and never belong to one genre only, so that the course is indeed eligible to students of all majors. Essays can be composed freely, but need to be submitted in English or in German. Individual student-counselling of the lecturer will be available.

2 Location: Time: University of Copenhagen, Amager, Karen Blixens Vej 4, room 15A-2-11 Mondays from 4 to 6 p.m. First lecture is February 9 th and last lecture is April 27 th. Furthermore, there will be two excursions on March 9 th immediately after the lecture and on Sunday April 19 th. A total of 10 lectures and 2 excursions or other relevant activities. Coordinator: The course is organised by The Saxo Institute. The coordinator is Ulrich Knappe, University of Copenhagen. Lecturer: Assistants: Website: Facebook: Ulrich Knappe, University of Copenhagen There will be two teaching assistants from Danish Culture Courses, who will assist with practical matters. dcc@hum.ku.dk Registration: There are two ways to register: Fill in the registration form in this leaflet and hand it in to the Danish Culture Courses staff or find the registration form on our website, fill it in electronically and send it to dcc@hum.ku.dk from your alumni-mail. The deadline is March 5 th The course is only offered to international students enrolled at the University of Copenhagen through The International Office. We can only admit 60 students at this course. Students will be admitted according to the date they hand in the registration form.

3 Examination: When you register for the course you are automatically registered for the exam. Danish Literature and Philosophy in Context of Danish Culture and Society HDCB01051E: Free written home assignment of standard pages (15 ECTS). If you participate actively in a minimum of 80% of the lectures and excursions, there will be a reduction of the assignment. That means that you must participate in at least 10 of the 12 lectures and excursions. With reduction the assignment must be pages. You must get your topic approved by the examiner in the Absalon room. Your topic must be uploaded no later than April 9 th. Approval by the examiner will happen no later than April 23 rd. The assignment must be uploaded in Absalon no later than June 4 th at 12 p.m. (noon). After evaluation of the exam the grade or result is automatically added to your transcript and reported to your home university by The International Office. The grade will be published on KU-net Self Service four weeks after deadline for submission of exam paper. Literature: Your personal syllabus will be the required readings available for download in Absalon. A collection of pertinent books are available in the reference library. These books are only to be studied in the library, cf. list of books, which you can find in the Absalon room. The location is Saxo Knowledge Centre 13B 2 nd floor at KUA2. IMPORTANT DATES: March 5 th : Deadline for registration and change of exams April 9 th : Deadline for upload of topic for free home assignment on Absalon April 23 rd : May 28 th : Topics for the free home assignment must be approved by Ulrich Knappe. End-of-term celebration June 4 th : Deadline for submission of exam papers

4 SCHEDULE Feb. 9 th Lecture 1: Introduction and Overview to the course Feb. 16 th Lecture 2: Finding the idea for which I am willing to live and die Feb. 23 rd Lecture 3: [Im] purity of Heart Mar. 2 nd Lecture 4: Despair Mar. 9 th Lecture 5: Is Abraham a Murderer? Mar. 9 th Excursion: Film: Breaking the Waves, Lars Von Trier Mar. 16 th Lecture 6: Fear and Trembling revisited Mar. 23 rd Lecture 7: Passion Apr. 13 th Lecture 8: Absurdity Apr. 19 th Excursion: City walk: Kierkegaard in Copenhagen Apr. 20 th Lecture 9: Kierkegaard and Socrates Apr. 27 th Lecture 10: What is Existentialism? Summary and Conclusions The programme is subject to alteration.

5 PROGRAMME Lecture 1: (Feb. 9 th ) Lecture 2: (Feb. 16 th ) Introduction and Overview to the Course Finding the Idea for Which I am Willing to Live and Die. As a concrete approach to Kierkegaard s thinking, we will analyse two very famous journal entries from his time as a student. Many themes that concerned him throughout his life are neatly portrayed here. First of all, understanding these themes will give us a more substantial introduction to the major topics to be discussed in the remainder of the course. Secondly, they will give us a point of departure for highlighting significant phases of his biography. Expected reading in the binder: Selected early entries from Kierkegaard s journals and papers. Lecture 3: (Feb. 23 rd ) [Im] purity of Heart For the most part we do not live up to our truthful ideals. Kierkegaard calls this an aesthetic existence. In the writing Purity of Heart he presents such attitude as double-mindedness. In this lecture, we will analyse the main features of such view on life. Expected reading in the binder: Purity of heart is to will one thing. (An Occasional Discourse). Lecture 4: (Mar. 2 nd ) Despair Another aspect of an aesthetic existence is despair. Kierkegaard conceives of it as a spiritual disease. We will look into the corresponding account of our personal failure by interpreting passages from Sickness unto Death. Expected reading in the binder: Despair is the sickness unto death. Lecture 5: (Mar. 9 th ) Is Abraham a Murderer? In Fear and Trembling Kierkegaard puts forward two crucial existential ideals in order to remedy double-mindedness and despair : the ethical and the religious life views. Even though ethicality renders some true point of orientation, he argues that there might be situations where we need to give up morality in favour of faith. This is put forward dramatically in an ingenious and unorthodox reinterpretation of a story in the bible (Genesis, ch. 22) where Abraham intends to kill his son, Isaac. However, if Abraham is a murderer, faith does not exist, Kierkegaard maintains... Expected reading in the binder: Fear and Trembling: Problema I

6 Excursion: Film: Breaking the Waves, Lars von Trier (After lecture 5) (Mar. 9 th ) Lars von Trier s dogma movie reflects many ideas of Kierkegaard s Fear and Trembling. It will provide us with a modern perspective on the issue since Beth, the main character of the film, is in a similar situation as Abraham. Lecture 6: (Mar. 16 th ) Fear and Trembling revisited Kierkegaard immodestly said that if he had written this work only, he would have already become world famous. Indeed, Fear and Trembling is a complex work that puts forward many interesting nuances of Kierkegaard s theory of existence. We will dwell on them and will at the same time compare the writing with Lars von Trier s movie. Expected reading in the binder: Fear and Trembling: Problema I (and II) Lecture 7: Passion (Mar. 23 rd ) According to Kierkegaard, a crucial concept that illuminates authentic/faithful existence is passion. We will try to understand its nature by looking at the contrast in Concluding Unscientific Postscript between passionate thinking and unengaged/scientific thinking. Expected reading in binder: Concluding Unscientific Postscript (Subjective Truth, Inwardness, pp ). Lecture 8: (Apr. 13 th ) Absurdity One of the most fascinating aspects of Kierkegaard s conception of authentic existence is its abandonment of ordinary standards of rationality. Correspondingly, to become authentic runs the risk of committing to peculiar absurdities in our life, and these we will investigate by means of some further readings from Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Expected reading in the binder: Concluding Unscientific Postscript (Subjective Truth, Inwardness, pp & The Issue in Fragments, pp ) Excursion: (Apr. 19 th ) Kierkegaard in Copenhagen We will visit some of the places Kierkegaard frequented as well as some of his former residences in Copenhagen. By doing so, we will get to know details of his odd personal life. We will end the tour in one of Kierkegaard s apartments, which, happily, is now a café.

7 Lecture 9: (Apr. 20 th ) Kierkegaard and Socrates Kierkegaard s relation to Socrates is of perennial importance in order to understand his thinking. We will critically evaluate this relation by means of discussing the very last words of his authorship where he acknowledges his Socratic inheritance Expected reading in binder: Fædrelandet Articles, The Moment. Lecture 10: (Apr. 27 th ) What is Existentialism? Summary and Conclusions In our final lecture we will review the central contents and problems of the earlier lectures. In this way, Kierkegaard s overall train of thought will be coherently presented and brought into historical perspective. Thereby we will be oriented towards the question why and how Kierkegaard s thinking is often understood as being existentialistic.

8 ADDRESSES Danish Culture Courses Contact Information; Lecturer: Course Coordinator: Ulrich Knappe, University of Copenhagen Contact for General Questions: Assistants: Jónas Terney Arason Anne Bartholdy Caroline Høglund Valentin Boolsen Frederik Andreas Braae Jonas Hellesøe Christensen Andreas Gamst Christian Egelund Idorn Ben Stampe Johansen Jonas Schougaard Natascha Vogel Karen Blixens Vej 4, room Director: Per Methner Rasmussen, The Saxo Institute Karen Blixens Vej 4, room DK-2300 København S pmr@hum.ku.dk Web-site: Facebook: Exam Secretary: Mia Petersen Sullca The Saxo Institute Karen Blixens Vej 4, DK-2300 København S gwq633@hum.ku.dk The International Office Det Internationale Kontor Fiolstræde 1 Postboks 1143 DK-1010 København K Phone: / inter@adm.ku.dk