KIERKEGAARD, PHILOSOPHY, AND AESTHETICISM

Beginning with a consideration of one of the central methodological issues in contemporary Kierkegaard scholarship, this paper goes on to suggest that the tradition of reading Kierkegaard as a philosopher, or in the terms of philosophy, is a tradition of aestheticism. Calling upon the distinguishing features of the aesthete found in the work of Anthony Rudd and Patrick Stokes, the author argues that the tradition of reading Kierkegaard as a philosopher has these same features; and so can be said to be a tradition of aestheticism. The paper goes on to make this case in detail with respect to Rudd’s book Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical and Stokes’ Kierkegaard’s Mirrors.