Søren Kierkegaard - philosophical terrorism and the "whylessness of existence"

"Christendom's guilt is really that it makes a fool of God... My task is to put a halt to a lying defusion of Christianity." ~ SK

Was the “hunchback of Copenhagen” a “New Atheist” in company with Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins?

The most intriguing thing to me about SK is how this same thinker has been championed by some as the most arch-Christian of religious philosophers and by others as a kind of atheist suicide bomber, set out to demolish Christianity from within—the paradigm of the philosophical terrorist par excellence... We start a series of philosophical profiles with a bang! Check out, “The First New Atheist: 200 years after his birth, Kierkegaard’s philosophies are more relevant than ever (https://thesmartset.com/article05081301/)” by Morgan Meis, and the excellent intro by Julian Baggini, "I still love Kierkegaard." (https://aeon.co/essays/happy-birthday-kierkegaard-we-need-you-now).

We'll explore SK's "whylessness of existence" (to use Peter Klein phrase). Don’t stop thinking too loud!

Kierkegaard and Russell face off on faith at Lapham's Quarterly:
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/conversations/soren-kierkegaard-bertrand-russell

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A fuller writeup on Kierkegaard, still evolving, is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10wGr2sekbRG5m-UBTC0eOzLsUy7eUya31sVfFiqy7Io/edit?usp=sharing

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About the historical series

While I’ll still be doing contemporary topics in philosophy, I will be inserting historical figures and topics related to them. SK would be the first of a set profiles of major thinkers in the Western Tradition. Definitely already in line are Kant, Hume, Mill, Smith, Marx, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein (again) and more to come...

I say “Western” because that is what I know best, and that’s a huge domain already. But I also hope to venture beyond, and I invite anyone with knowledge of Non-Western thinkers who interacted with Western thought to help us out. Nishida Kitaro, comes to mind, for one, and I may attempt to do him even if no else one steps forward.

Also, I’ll be targeting unjustifiably lesser known (at least as philosophers) women who have played important roles in the history of the subject. A few I have in mind are Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia who gave Descartes’ theory of mind/body a run for its money long before anyone else did. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (daughter of the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and herself author of Frankenstein) prefigured a few of our philosophical concerns with AI. Virginia Woolf had some little known but very pointed things to say about gender and war. One of my personal favorites, Gertrude Stein, was a much admired student of William James, a good friend of Alfred North Whitehead, and a nemesis of Bertrand Russell, and she did some things with language that only Wittgenstein might have appreciated. And more recently, a sex scandal (of a sort) involving Ruth Barcan Marcus and Saul Kripke and modal logic!

My choices are determined by something striking about a philosopher/thinker that not only engages me but reflect ideas in philosophical debates that never go away. The ideas of these people live on whether most of us are aware of them or not.

Why start with SK? Is he really that major? By major I mean to include not only those widely acknowledged to be so, but ones that I think ought to be. SK happens to be both. If you disagree: take this as a challenge and tell me why—or, better, host your own favorite. I’m footing the hosting bill and can help you with the research. All you have to do is tell us why you think so and so was, and still is, hot stuff philosophically.

As usual, if you’d like to help with any of these topics or do them yourself or if you have something relevant to suggest, let me know.

~Victor