Der Prozeß – Day 7

Er war schlank und doch fest gebaut, er trug ein anliegendes schwarzes Kleid, das, ähnlich den Reiseanzügen, mit verschiedenen Falten, Taschen, Schnallen, Knöpfen und einem Gürtel versehen war und infolgedessen, ohne daß man sich darüber klar wurde, wozu es dienen sollte, besonders praktisch erschien.

He was slim but built solid, he wore a black fitted suit, that, similar to travel suits, were fitted with several folds, pockets, buckles, buttons and a belt and as a result was not clear about its purpose, but seemed particularly useful.

Ewww, I think I’m killing the humour here.

The Concept of Irony

The Concept of Irony is Kierkegaard’s master’s thesis.  It is an examination of the socratic method as irony.  Kierkegaard’s articulation and clarification of Socrates based on Plato and not Xenophon is already fruitful for a person like myself with little classical background in philosophy.

Kierkegaard describes irony as follows,

One may ask a question for the purpose of obtaining an answer containing the desired content, so that the more on questions, the deeper and more meaningful becomes the answer; or one may ask a question, not in the interest of obtaining an answer, but to suck out the apparent content with a question and leave only an emptiness remaining.  The first method naturally presupposes a content, the second emptiness; the first is speculative, the second ironic.

Socrates took aim at the knowing subject considering it a god-given task to dismantle what others may have called wisdom to show it to be, in fact, ignorance.

Du Côté de Chez Swann – Day 6

Je me demandais quelle heure il pouvait être; j’entendais le sifflement des trains qui, plus ou moins éloigné, comme le chant d’un oiseau dans une forêt, relevant les distances, me décrivait l’étendue de la campagne déserte où le voyageur se hâte vers la station prochaine; et le petit chemin qu’il suit va être gravé dans son souvenir par l’excitation qu’il doit à des lieux nouveaux, à des actes inaccoutumés, à la causerie récente et aux adieux sous la lampe étrangère qui le suivent encore dans le silence de la nuit, à la douceur prochaine du retour.

I was wondering what time it might be; I heard the whistle of trains, more or less removed, as the song of a bird in a forest, within the distances, outlining for me the range of deserted countryside where the traveler is looking for the next station; and the small path he follows will be engraved in his mind by the excitement due to the new places, to the unusual acts, to the recent conversations and farewells under a strange light which still follow in the silence of the night, to the sweetness that comes with return.

 

This is pretty damn beautiful.

Der Prozeß – Day 5&6

K. wartete noch ein Weilchen, sah von seinem Kopfkissen aus die alte Frau, die ihm gegenüber wohnte und die ihn mit einer an ihr ganz ungewöhnlichen Neugierde beobachtete, dann aber, gleichzeitig befremdet und hungrig, läutete er. Sofort klopfte es und ein Mann, den er in dieser Wohnung noch niemals gesehen hatte, trat ein.

K. waited a while, looked from his pillow at the old woman, who lived next to him and was watching him with a highly unusual curiosity for her, but then, both unnerved and hungry, he rang the bell.  Immediately there was a knock and a man, whom in this apartment he had never seen, came in.

Du Côté de Chez Swann – Day 5

Puis elle commençait à me devenir inintelligible, comme après la métempsycose les pensées d’une existence antérieure; le sujet du livre se détachait de moi, j’étais libre de m’y appliquer ou non; aussitôt je recouvrais la vue et j’étais bien étonné de trouver autour de moi une obscurité, douce et reposante pour mes yeux, mais peut-être plus encore pour mon esprit, à qui elle apparaissait comme une chose sans cause, incompréhensible, comme une chose vraiment obscure.

Then it would begin to seem unintelligible, like the reincarnation of thoughts from a former existence; The subject of the book detached itself from me, I was free to apply myself or not; I at once regained sight and was surprised to find myself [where it was] dark, sweet and relaxing for my eyes, but possibly even more for my mind, to which things it appeared as something without cause, incomprehensible, like something really obscure.  

Kierkegaard’s Early Polemical Writings

Well I have started out with a pretty healthy pace on the Kierkegaard reading finishing the first volume last night.  The volume is of course relatively short and much less demanding than what I will be tackling.  The volume is primarily a composition journalistic debate, an extended review of his school mate Hans Christian Andersen and then a fragmented play exploring various philosophical modes.

Most of the content was not particularly engaging, though the critical review of Andersen definitely had its moments.  Kierkegaard basically charges Andersen of an inability to allow his life to be invested in the process of writing but rather “he has utilized [writing] in a purely external manner.  If we now add to this the temptation to produce instead of developing himself, to hide an inner emptiness under motley pictures, to let himself be absorbed in generation without any reproduction . . . then it will certainly not surprise us that, instead of carrying through his reflection, he on the contrary encloses himself in a very small space of it” (74).

Kierkegaard goes on charge Andersen of lacking a ‘life-view’ which he defines as follows,

A life-view is more than a quintessence or a sum of propositions maintained in its abstract neutrality; it is more than experience, which as such is always fragmentary.  It is, namely, the transubstantiation of experience; it is an unshakable certainty in oneself won from all experience, whether this has oriented itself only in all worldly relationships (a purely human standpoint, Stoicism, for example), by which means it keeps itself from contact with a deeper experience – or whether in its heavenward direction (the religious) it has found therein the center as much for its heavenly as its earthly existence, has won the true Christian conviction “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, no principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation will be able separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” . . . A life-view if really providence in the novel; it is its deeper unity, which make the novel have the center of gravity in itself.  A life-view frees it from being arbitrary or purposeless, since the purpose if immanently present everywhere in the work of art. (76, 81)

I just finished SK’s introduction to The Concept of Irony it looks to be both educational philosophically and engaging in terms of SK’s intellectual development.

Du Côté de Chez Swann – Day 4

Cette croyance survivait pendant quelques secondes à mon réveil; elle ne choquait pas ma raison mais pesait comme des écailles sur mes yeux et les empêchait de se rendre compte que le bougeoir n’était plus allumé.

This impression would persist for a few seconds when I woke up; it would not disturb my mind but lay like scales on my eyes and prevented them from realizing the candle was not lit.

Der Prozeß – Day 3

Die Köchin der Frau Grubach, seiner Zimmervermieterin, die ihm jeden Tag gegen acht Uhr früh das Frühstück brachte, kam diesmal nicht.

The cook of Mrs Grubach, his landlady, who brought him his breakfast every day at 8 in the morning, did not this morning.

I love the pace already!