The Lonely Labyrinth: Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Works (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 339 prescriptions from an examination of his philosophical ideas--in so far as his prescriptions stem from intimations in the concrete circumstances of his experience and his philosophy from his analytical statements. The "in so far" leaves room for substantial interactions of philosophy and prescriptions, as several of Manning's chapters show. Manning finds Bentham's alleged influence upon practical politicians close to nil. Bentharn was one of those "academic scribblers" who helped to form the climate of opinion in which political reforms occurred. Similar experiences gave rise to coincidental conclusions about what needed to be done. Bentham's vaunted shadow, in other words, fell mainly upon other philosophers and historians of ideas. HAROLDA. LARRAnEE Austin, Texas The Lonely Labyrinth: Kierkegaard's Pseudonymous Works. By Josiah Thompson. (Southern Ill. Univ. Press: Carbondale, 1967. Pp. xx+242) Some books, even when they are studies of the work of another man, have a thesis of their own, and this one certainlyhas. Josiah Thompson has consciously chosen to view Srrcn Kierkcgaard's pseudonymous works as illustratingthe development of a problem in Kicrkcgaard's life.As such it has both the strengths and weaknesses of following this explicitcourse. If Kierkegaard did indeed wander through the labyrinth of tormented religiousdoubt seeking to escape, the books of the period of his pseudonymous authorship can then bc traced as the result of this seeking and finallyfinding. On the other hand, the reader is left with the puzzle of whether such a pattern would appear so clearly if these books were read without this specificthought in mind. Thompson documents his case, certainly, but the basic issue which remains unexplored is whether the writings of Kicrkcgaard are best understood in this autobiographical context (for it is Kierkegaard who introduced himself into his writings) or whether perhaps it would be better to take them on their own without trying to fathom the riddle of Kierkegaard's relationship to his own writings. The issue involved hcrc is the difference between the factual Kierkegaard and the author who appears on the written page in romantically exaggerated description. These questions cannot be solved, but Thompson's book ultimately rests upon them for its evaluation. Kierkcgaard reintroduced psychology as the path to philosophy, but, even so, whether an analysis of his personal "sickness" is the best approach to his thought remains an open question. "Inner suffering" is a theme which runs through Kierkcgaard 's thought, but we must first accept his words about himself as literally true before we can accept this as an interpretive base. Here the question of romantic exaggeration haunts us, and Kierkegaard is known to have overstated his case purposefully in order to get his reader's attention. There is a danger then in accepting any description hc gives as literally true. Thompson treats the whole effort as one to achieve "health" not "truth," but this assumes an identity between the Kierkegaard of the printed page (even including the Journals) and the factual human author. Such an identification between real and intellectual being is existentially a very risky hypothesis . I am, but I am not what I am as an author. Thompson points to an emptiness, a void at the center of Kierkcgaard's existence, his total inabilityto really be in any given moment as the evidence of his "sickness." 340 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Then the pseudonymous works become his struggle to work his way out to health, in this case Christianity (p. 47). The theme of "lostness" does reoccur in his writing (p. 51), but what we must decide is: (1) how exaggerated might such sentiments be in relation to the real facts of his existence, and (2) in any case does this sufficiently explain the material presented in the pseudonymous works? If he needed to explore a series of life-views, Thompson argues, pseudonymous authorship provided Kierkegaard his vehicle for this personal search (p. "/0). Thompson thinks that melancholy and suffering provide the frame for Either/Or, for instance, and explain its logic (p. 76), but does this really explain all the content of that work? Surely there are many times when Kierkegaard seems light-hearted and humorous, for instance when he pokes fun at himself...