Kierkegaard: A Kind of Poet (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 421 gemeine Algebra, als die Differential- und Integral-Rechnung, und einen Anhang yon den voraehrnsten mathematischen Schriften in sich begreift, und zu mehrerem Aufnehmen der Mathematick so wohl auf hohen als niedrigen Schnlen aufgesetzt worden" fl-Ialle, 1750). The sentence about the mountain and the grain of sand is a literal quotation. In the part on Natural Philosophy Hegel talks about Galilei's law of free fall as follows: "The law of this notion which Galilei has found and which is one of the few belonging to modern times, mathematics has in vain tried to prove; its proof rather presuppose it and are only descriptive expositions of it." The editors think that Hegel here refers to Schelling's criticism of Le Sage's attempt at adducing proof of Galilei's law and also to K~tner's criticism of that attempt. They mention G. L. Le Sage's "Essai de chymie m~chanique," which received a prize by the Academy of Rouen in 1758, and also A. G. K~istner's "Prilfung eines yon Herrn Le Sage angegebenen Gesetzes fur fallende Ktrper." Schelling discusses it in his book: "Ideen." HENRY WALTER BRAN/4 Takoma Park, Maryland Kierkegaard: A Kind o! Poet. By Louis Mackey. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971. P. xiii + 327. Cloth: $12.50. Paper: $4.25) Kierkegaard has been attacked, explained in dozens of ways, trivialized, mindlessly admixed, quoted without being understood, and even psychoanalyzed a distans. Now comes Louis Mackey with an interpretation tam antiqua quam nova of Kierkegaard as a poet. This point has been made by, among others, Peter Rohde, who writes: The relationship with his [S. K.'s] father had activated his abilities as a writer by strengthening his imagination. The relationship with Regine had furnished him the material to write about: the relationship between man and woman. Regine had made him a poet, but he couldn't start to write until she was out of the picture. 1 Kierkegaard frequently mentioned in a variety of ways, through thinly coricealed allusions in the pseudonymous works, and in rather clear statements in the Papirer, that his unfulfilled love for Regine made him a poet. Mackey, quite correctly, does not overemphasize the romantic motivation for S. K.'s becoming a poet, but instead concentrates on an investigation and explication of the meaning and ramifications of Kierkegaard's view of himself as a poetic thinker. S. K.'s often puzzling and sometimes involuted use of pseudonyms has intrigued and exasperated many of his interpreters. Many have had a go at explaining the real meaning, function, and significance of the pseudonyms. In the early chapters of his book Mackey does not directly enter the lists with his own specific unravelling of the pseudonyms themselves, but in a sort of "indirect communication" that S. K. might well have welcomed, Mackey does offer some interesting insights and comparisons. However, in the final chapter, Mackey returns to the topic of the pseudonyms directly. Although he does not claim to give us the definitive explanation, one finds here one a Peter Rohde, Seren Kierkegaard: An Introduction to His Life and Philosophy (London: Allen and Unwin, 1963) pp. 70-71. 422 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY of the clearest treatments of this mind-boggllng issue that this reviewer has seen.2 For example, Mackey observes: A Kierkegaardian pseudonym is a persona, an imaginary person created by the author for artistic purposes, not a nora de plume, a fictitious name used to protect his personal identity from the threats and embarrassments of publicity . . . his purpose was not mystification but distance. By refusing to answer for his writings he detached them from his personality so as to let their form protect the freedom that was their theme.3 The casual reader of Kierkegaard is very likely to stumble on much of S. K.'s ideosyncratic use of otherwise familiar terminology. One good example of this is Kierkegaard's use of the word "aesthetic." Mackey helps the uninitiated reader over this hurdle by distinguishing between the traditional or common meaning of aesthetic as "pertaining to beauty and the fine arts," and the etymological meaning as "sense perception," which is closer to Kierkegaard's use of...