Here are some blog-adapted scraps I’ve decided not to use for a paper, but seem to me to be nonetheless worth saving. They also touch on some of the issues I’ve been gesturing toward in Hart and Zuidervaart in previous posts. In an essay entitled “A Brief History of Continental Realism,”[1] Braver offers a historical […]
Category: Writings
Human experience is a series of starts and stops. To be human is to navigate the reality of time and space, to deal with ourselves in motion. There are psychological states which help or harm our ability to be in motion, and these states are often dependent on the interplay between our own personal resolve […]
As I was writing today, it hit me that Kierkegaard’s notion of repetition bears some interesting similarities to the hilarious apocalyptic satire by Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins. The book revolves around a southern doctor, Thomas Moore (descendant of Sir Thomas Moore, author of Utopia), who happens to be an alcoholic, a lapsed Catholic, […]
If freedom here [in repetition as a religious movement] now discovers an obstacle, then it must lie in freedom itself. Freedom now shows itself not to be in its perfection in man but to be disturbed. This disturbance, however, must be attributed to freedom itself, for otherwise there would be no freedom at all, or […]
In Repetition, Constantinus suggests that repetition is the “condition sine qua non for every issue of dogmatics” (324). That got me thinking, of course. Dogmatics is a dirty word in philosophy these days, and the reputation is not unwarranted. But perhaps this is a mistake. This called my attention to Berdyaev’s commitment to dogmatics–I think […]
There are some natural similarities between repetition and imitation. Imitation is, itself, a form of repetition, but of a more specialized sort. They both deal with freedom, primarily. All over we see Constantin and Kierkegaard referring to repetition as a “task for freedom,” and this is his criticism of Heiberg, as well, that he did […]
In my research, I’ve been confronted with the problem of whether or not “repetition” is meant to be a term describing reality as it is (an ontology) or something different. After reading an unpublished piece Kierkegaard wrote under Constantin Constantinus, I’m beginning to have serious doubts about the concept as an ontological option. The piece […]
Another great gem from Either/Or II, found immediately preceding the parable about the giant: Dixi et animam meam liberavi [I have spoken and unburdened my soul], not as though up to now my soul had been ensnared and just now has relief in this protracted expectoration–no, this is merely healthy breathing in which my soul […]
I’ve been reading quite a bit and feel like I’m inches away from cracking this slippery concept. A lot of my conclusions seem elementary now, but I’m glad to have gotten here. Here are some further developments I’m noting: In What Ways Repetition is Impossible: Reality can never have an exact repetition because every thing […]
As a seminar at St. Olaf, we are reading through Either/Or part II right now. I realize it’s a cumbersome text, but to be honest I actually enjoy reading it more than many it seems. It’s not my first time through, but for some reason this parable either never struck me before or I unfortunately […]
Dean Dettloff 