Tom P.S. Angier - Either Kierkegaard/Or Nietzsche (Intersections: Continental and Analytic Philosophy)

EITHER KIERKEGAARD/OR NIETZSCHE MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN A NEW KEY

INTERSECTIONS: CONTINENTAL AND ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY

Series Editors

Stephen Mulhall, University of Oxford, UK William Blattner, Georgetown University, USA Taylor Carman, Columbia University, USA Tina Chanter

In recent years, the familiar division within modern Western philosophy between what are commonly called its analytical and its Continental forms has been questioned from both sides of the divide. A new generation of philosophers, often benefiting from a far more pluralistic training in the history and methods of both traditions, have begun to work in ways which promise to make the terms of this traditional division irrelevant.

This new series, Intersections, is intended to provide a home and a platform for the best examples of philosophical research that seeks to expound the founding texts of Continental philosophy with all the critical tools that analytical philosophy makes available. It also seeks to explore the unfamiliar but challenging conceptions and standards of rigorous thinking that Continental philosophy is founded upon. The series gather together exciting new studies from philosophers well-versed in, and sympathetic to, both traditions, presenting a cluster of titles on key topics in contemporary philosophy which move towards rendering the traditional Continental-analytic divide irrelevant. The series aims to help to hasten the demise of a profoundly damaging internal discord that is, in large part, based on mutual misunderstanding.

Moral Philosophy in a New Key

TOM P.S. ANGIER

University of Toronto, Canada

First published 2006 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

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Copyright Tom P.S. Angier 2006

Tom P.S. Angier has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Angier, Tom P.S.
Either Kierkegaard/or Nietzsche : moral philosophy in a new key. (Intersections : continental and analytic philosophy)
1.Kierkegaard, Soren, 1813-1855 2.Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900
3.Ethics
I. Title
170.922

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Angier, Tom P. S.

Either Kierkegaard/or Nietzsche : moral philosophy in a new key / Tom P.S. Angier.
p. cm.(Intersections)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-7546-5474-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Kierkegaard, Soren, 1813-1855. 2. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900.
3. Ethics. I. Title. II. Series: Intersections (Aldershot, England)
B4377.A577 2006
170.922dc22
2005016751

ISBN: 978-0-754-65474-2 (ebk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-5474-2 (hbk)

To

The Brainin and Kelsen families

As late as the 1990s, it was rare to find either Kierkegaard or Nietzsche taught in English-speaking Philosophy departments. They were commonly viewed as little more than continental littrateurs, who did not deserve a place in serious Philosophy curricula. Fortunately, since the 1990s, things have changed. For example, Cambridge University has put works by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on its set texts list, and the University of Toronto has a course dedicated to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche alone. Moreover, since the 1990s there have been an increasing number of rigorous, analytic philosophical studies published on the two philosophers. Nietzsche has received most attention, while Kierkegaard for his part has not gone unnoticed.

I hope the following study will make a useful contribution to this growing body of literature, especially in its emphasis on the philosophical worth of Kierkegaards writings. I hope too that it will promote the realisation that Kierkegaard and Nietzsche should be considered together as philosophers. Their works effectively constitute a moral philosophical dialogue, an exchange that amounts to a remarkable journey in philosophical discovery. For Kierkegaard and Nietzsche wrote at the time of Christianitys philosophical and institutional withdrawal from mainstream European life, and their opposing conceptions of that traditions moral legacy are not only of great historical interest, but also as I hope this book will demonstrate of great relevance to the moral self-conception of the contemporary West.

I wish to express my thanks to all those who have been generous enough to devote their time to reading and commenting on earlier versions of this book, or sections thereof. They are: Professor Malcolm Budd, formerly of University College London; Dr Raymond Geuss, of Cambridge University; Dr John Marenbon, of Trinity College, Cambridge; Simon May, College Research Fellow in Philosophy at Birkbeck College London; Paul McGoay, formerly of Trinity College, Cambridge; Dr John Milbank, of the University of Nottingham; Dr Stephen Mulhall, of New College, Oxford; Dr George Pattison, of Christ Church, Oxford; Dr Michael Tanner, formerly of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Professor Charles Taylor, formerly of the University of McGill; the late Professor Bernard Williams, formerly of All Souls College, Oxford.

I also wish to thank the Wingate Foundation for their generous financial help, along with the Anglo-Danish Society and the Berendsen Foundation, who gave me substantial grants for the purposes of studying Kierkegaard in Denmark. St Olafs Library in Northfield, Minnesota, provided invaluable resources for my study of Kierkegaard, as did the Kierkegaard Research Centre at the University of Copenhagen. Finally, I want to make clear my deep gratitude to Clare College, Cambridge, which sustained me throughout my years of research and writing.

Kierkegaard texts are followed by page numbers, except in the case of JP, where section numbers are given. Nietzsche texts are followed by section numbers, except in the cases of EH, TWI, UM and Z, where page numbers are given.

For full details of texts used, see the Bibliography.

AC The Anti-Christ

BA The Book on Adler

BGE Beyond Good and Evil

BT The Birth of Tragedy

CA The Concept of Anxiety

CI The Concept of Irony

CUP Concluding Unscientific Postscript

D Daybreak

EH Ecce Homo

EOl Either/Or (part one)

EO2 Either/Or (part two)

EUD Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses

FE On the Future of our Educational Institutions

FT Fear and Trembling

GM On the Genealogy of Morals

GS The Gay Science

HAH Human, all too Human

JP Journals and Papers

PC Practice in Christianity

PF Philosophical Fragments

PH Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing