Kierkegaard on Politics

Barry Stocker makes the case for considering Kierkegaard as a major figure in political thought. The book discusses Kierkegaard's direct comments on politics along with the more indirect ways he engages with political thought. Looking at the historical context in Denmark and at the history of political thought, the book shows how political themes run through Kierkegaard's discussions of literature, aesthetics, ethics, philosophy and religion. It shows how republican and radical liberal political ideas are present in Kierkegaard, though he may sometimes appear to be an apolitical and conservative thinker. Kierkegaard on Politics shows how Kierkegaard was focused on a tense combination of radical individualism and admiration for the participatory political communities of antiquity. The book builds on this to demonstrate the political aspects of Kierkegaard's thoughts about subjectivity and communication. These arguments are placed in the context of debates about liberalism and republicanism, law and sovereignty, ethics and politics, and the nature of political community.

This investigation of Kierkegaard as a political thinker with regard to the Danish context, and to his place in the history of political thought, deals with the more direct discussion of politics in Kierkegaard, and the ways in which political ideas are embedded in his literary, aesthetic, ethical, philosophical, and religious thought.

Barry Stocker teaches philosophy at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, and is an Honorary Research Associate at the Department of Philosophy, University College London, UK. He is the author of Derrida on Deconstruction (2006), and is currently working on a book about liberty in Foucault.

1. Introduction

2. Tarquinius and Brutus: Political Fear and Trembling

3. Previous Perspectives on Kierkegaard and Politics

4. Kierkegaard and the Danish Political Community

5. Communities of Liberty

6. Ethical and Legal Community

7. Tragic Community

8. Political Irony

9. Conclusion

Index