Either/Or

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1. reifyApr 2024
   A great quote and great book from Kierkegaard

   Either/Or: A Fragment of Life by Søren Kierkegaard

   My depression is the most faithful mistress I have ever known. No wonder then, That I return the love.

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2. PaulHouleSep 2021
   I liked Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard also have been reading Baudrillard again -- some people find him hard to understand but he gives me a feeling of Deja Vu. (e.g. what happened to me because I spent years playing video games, what is happening now because it changed me)
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3. novoselJul 2021
   I have found that feeling described best in the Either/Or of Kierkegaard. The chapter called The Unhappiest Man.

   Putting aside the dramatic overtone of the piece, the temporal logic, or rather dialectical swoon of the one that is living in the future/pas(t)ivity is very poignant to me.

   https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Either/Or#The_Unhappiest_Man

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4. dwdDec 2020
   The logic of deciding on a course of action based on a single determinate decision was not a new concept.

   I would think Soren Kierkegaard deserves a hat-tip to his existential work: Either/Or.

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5. vga805Sep 2020
   I used to teach Existentialism before leaving academia. As the other comment mentions Kierkegaard's "Either/Or" is worth a read, I also recommend "Fear and Trembling."

   The other two writers associated with this term I think are must reads are Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. The former's Notes From Underground is one of my favorite pieces of literature. I highly recommend reading it alongside his "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions," a travel diary he wrote that heavily inspired his later work. In it, he vividly describes the kind of anxieties he has with modernity that influences his work.

   And for those wanting a higher level overview of Existentialism and the myriad (seemingly incompatible) writers associated with the term, I highly recommend Kevin Aho's "Existentialism: an Introduction." I've read most of the popular overviews and this one is hands down the best.

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6. yesenadamNov 2019
   I wouldn't say Nietzsche "embraced the nihilism". Embraced atheism, sure. Even The Anti-Christ I think says not a word against Jesus, who he seems to admire, but is aimed against the corruption of Jesus' teachings by priests and the Church. His teacher Schopenhauer–the first atheist modern western philosopher?–has much more of that nihilistic vibe - it would be better not to live, happiness is negative, lasting happiness impossible, the world is essentially annoying and horrible etc. Schopenhauer's also very Buddhisty–even had a bust of Buddha in his house–although I think arrived at his conclusions independently. Nietzsche at least tried to say Yes. Music was very important to both of them–S played flute, Nietzsche piano–and music was even more important in S's philosophy than Nietzsche's. Only through art, especially music, can we escape the miserable pressure of the Will, i.e. unconscious/life force/animal nature. Reading Schopenhauer's main book seems like Freud + Darwin. One of the essays in N's first book is the fascinating Schopenhauer as Educator. The chapters on S and N in Santayana's very readable and funny Egotism in German Philosophy are maybe the best, most insightful thing written about them.

   I read a lot of Kierkegaard years ago - for a while he and Nietzsche were my two best friends! I avoided K's christian stuff - way too angsty for me, and over issues that mean nothing to me. (Well, I did have a religious phase where I could agree with him that christians are nowhere near christian enough!) But I love a lot of his other stuff. Maybe my favourite is Either/Or - some parts of it - the aphorisms, Crop Rotation etc. It's very funny stuff. He's either very compressed or extremely long-winded. And the endless whining about Regine gets very tedious..

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