The Ethical Context of Either/Or
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Date
2015
Authors
Kosch, Michelle
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This is a sequel to an earlier paper ('Kierkegaard's Ethicist' Archiv 2006) in which I argued that J. G. Fichte (rather than Kant of Hegel or some amalgam) was the primary historical model for the ethical standpoint described in Kierkegaard's Either/Or II. Here I offer some new support for that claim. In the first section I present some evidence for Fichte's prominence in the landscape of philosophical ethics in the 1830s and '40s in Germany and Denmark. I argue that Kierkegaard's use of Fichte as a foil was not idiosyncratic, but was rather the obvious choice in the historical context. In the second section I describe some additional substantive and textual reasons for thinking Fichte was the figure looming largest in the background of Kierkegaard's construction of the ethical standpoint in Either/Or.
Description
18 pages
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Citation
Kosch, M. (2015). The Ethical Context of Either/Or. Konturen, 7, 84-101. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5399/uo/konturen.7.0.3667