[...]... start, indeed, with absolutely nothing.2 But philosophy does not start with absolutely nothing in Kierkegaard Philosophy does not start with doubt in Kierkegaard, as it does for Descartes Nor does philosophy start with wonder in Kierkegaard, as it had done for Aristotle, nor with suffering as it had done for Schopenhauer Moreover, as far as Kierkegaard is concerned, philosophy does not start with any such... AND BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE i SHORT INTRODUCTION: A STARTING PLACE FOR KIERKEGAARD It is at Kierkegaard s insights into the difficulties and sorrows of this life that many of his readers will have started with him Beginning with Kierkegaard in that way can work very well, whether our interest in Kierkegaard is just scholarly, or whether we are looking to Kierkegaard for wisdom that will help us to lead... perhaps, when we want access to something that might be close to what Kierkegaard really thought – whatever it might mean for anyone really to think anything27 – why not start with the edifying works published by one S Kierkegaard? In Starting with Kierkegaard, we will try to do this as much as possible, notwithstanding the possibility that ‘S Kierkegaard may have occasionally been a kind of pseudonym The... maintained a close interest in the work of Søren Kierkegaard – it is said that they would read it to one another – but Schlegel did not agree to a request from Søren for a meeting with Regine 9 STARTING WITH KIERKEGAARD R At the end of 1845, an article published by one Peder Ludvig Møller – most definitely not to be confused with Poul Martin Møller, a close friend of Kierkegaard s to whom we shall come shortly... not in harmony with it The actual 5 STARTING WITH KIERKEGAARD moral consciousness, however, is one that acts; it is precisely therein that the actuality of its morality consists.4 Stephen D Crites, in the introduction to his translation of Kierkegaard s The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress (Krisen og en Krise i en Skuespillerindes Liv), writes: Kierkegaard s preoccupation with the distinction... any journey towards important truths, would have appealed to Kierkegaard Lessing’s notion 15 STARTING WITH KIERKEGAARD R of truth as subjectivity surfaces in Kierkegaard s thinking, especially in Johannes Climacus’s Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, which also includes explicit and extensive discussion of Lessing Kierkegaard was drawn to Berlin by the lectures of Friedrich... the new age as fraught not merely with danger but also with the opportunity of developing each person into a full and responsible individual In this, he differed greatly from the authority figures of the conservative mainstream of the Golden age, the men who had once been his mentors.17 13 STARTING WITH KIERKEGAARD We will be coming back to the important questions about Kierkegaard s different conceptions... had himself taken power (by force but without bloodshed) in 1784 from his father, Christian VII (1749–1808), became increasingly concerned about his position over the years, notwithstanding the decline – caused by the pointless execution in France of Louis XVI in 1793 – in the popular support for the idea of revolution that had existed after 1789 11 STARTING WITH KIERKEGAARD R Frederik’s concerns about... better world within ourselves (as Kierkegaard urges us to do with his concept of ‘self-activity’) does not mean creating a better world only for ourselves Kierkegaard stands out in the nineteenth century as a Christian philosopher who starts with human beings as they are in the hereand-now As George Pattison has noted, the aesthetic parts of his authorship were needed, Kierkegaard believed, because of... literature that affected Kierkegaard and shaped his development Kierkegaard was influenced by quite a number of thinkers in his formative years, including Poul Martin Møller (1794–1838), Hamaan (1730–1788), Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Schlegel (1772–1829), Sibbern (1785–1872), Heiberg (1791–1860), Lessing (1729–1781) and Trendelenberg (1802–1872) Kierkegaard was, to start with, very taken with the philosophy . Jones Starting with Derrida, Sean Gaston Starting with Descartes, C. G. Prado Starting with Hegel, Craig B. Matarrese Starting with Heidegger, Tom Greaves Starting. Greaves Starting with Hobbes, George MacDonald Ross Starting with Leibniz, Roger Woolhouse Starting with Locke, Greg Forster Starting with Mill, John R. Fitzpatrick Starting