The moment of self-transformation: Kierkegaard on suffering and the subject.

In his self-published periodical The Moment, Søren Kierkegaard warns his reader against the possibility of 'useless suffering' ( unyttig Lidelse). Not only that, he urges the reader to make use of her suffering. Taking this caution as a point of departure, I investigate the pseudonymous Johannes Cli...

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Publicado en:Continental Philosophy Review Vol. 49; no. 2; pp. 161 - 181
Autor principal: Cuff Snow, Samuel
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jun2016
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        au: Cuff Snow, Samuel
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        Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855
        Suffering
        Dialectic
        Subjectivity
        Existence theorems
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          Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855
          Suffering
          Dialectic
          Subjectivity
          Existence theorems
      keyword:
        Inverse dialectic
        Kierkegaard
        Levinas
        Self-other relations
        The moment
        Upbuilding
        Useless suffering
      ab: In his self-published periodical The Moment, Søren Kierkegaard warns his reader against the possibility of 'useless suffering' ( unyttig Lidelse). Not only that, he urges the reader to make use of her suffering. Taking this caution as a point of departure, I investigate the pseudonymous Johannes Climacus' deliberations on ethico-religious suffering in the Postscript. I demonstrate that Climacus construes suffering as useful, and with that outlines an economy of suffering that Kierkegaard delineates across his pseudonymous and non-pseudonymous work. The paradigmatic expression of this is the use the subject makes of her suffering in 'the moment' ( Øieblikket), in which suffering is defined according to its relation with the eternal. Suffering is thus a key element of the individual subject's self-development: The subject is transformed, and transforms herself, in suffering. Finally, I argue that this economy of suffering produces a notion of the subject as actively involved in securing the contribution her suffering can make to her self-transformation. I criticize this notion, showing it renders problematic any ethical or ethico-religious account of the response of the subject to the suffering of the other: The subject is not first and foremost attuned to the other's suffering, rather she is attuned to the possibility of her own transformation. Suffering becomes in this way both a key exegetical tool for understanding Kierkegaard's view of the subject and, more significantly, a way to problematize Kierkegaard's ethical account of the subject's response to others' suffering.
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