The Journals and the Works of 1843 with Particular Reference to Either/Or

Abstract

The intention of these paper is hermeneutical: it is about understanding better Eithe/Or and for this is made a three level analysis: from the book itself, from the criticism the work had in its own time, and, lastly, from what Kierkegaard wrote about in his diaries. In the first level of the analysis, the main problem revolves arround the prologue and the sermon with which Either/Or culminates, about which nothing is mentioned by Victor Eremita at all and which may look like an added of Judge William as a proposal of another possibility for living life: not only as an aesthete or as an ethical man, but as a religious man. In the second level Johan Ludwig Heiberg's (1791-1880) criticism of Either/Or is reviewed along with other pseudonimous exchanges of comments regarding this work, which come from Kierkegaard's pen in the form of a peculiar strategy. It is noted in the third level that Either/Or and Two Edifying Discourses have in common the fact that they attend the problem of an ethical-religious life, although one begins asking how to be ethical whereas the other concentrates in universal religiosity. With Kierkegaard's diaries and letters is possible to notice the intention of writing a continuation or expanding the end of Either/Or with a text that would treat the religious in the social context of the individual, which allows to deepen the comprehension of Either/Or and Søren Kierkegaard's work in general.