Dear Hegel Group,

Sending it again; couple of mistakes...


I realize that you are most likely not into old Soren Kierkegaard, but the attached below may be of some interest to you in terms of 'being-in-itself' and 'being-for-itself', as it relates to Kierkegaard's extreme sensitivity to his own perspective of the world.

From Kierkegaard's �Repetition� (1843):

The �Young Man� (through Constantin Constantius) says:

�My life has been brought to its uttermost point. I am disgusted with existence, it has no savor and is without salt or meaning. Even if I were hungrier than Pierrot, I still would not eat of the explanation offered by men. One sticks a finger in the ground in order to tell by the smell what country one is in. I stick my finger into existence, it smells of nothing. Where am I? What does this mean, �the world�? What does that word mean? Who has tricked me into this entire affair and now leaves me standing here? Who am I? How did I come into the world? Why wasn�t I consulted? Why was I not made acquainted with the rules, but instead thrust into the ranks, as though I had been shanghaied by a military recruiter? How did I acquire a share in the great enterprise they call reality? Why do I have a share in it? Isn�t it a matter of free choice? And if I am to be forced to do this, where is the manager? To whom shall I direct my complaint? Existence is a debate, after all, so might I ask that my views be taken into consideration?...Will no one answer? Isn�t this the greatest importance to all the gentlemen involved?... How did it come about that I became guilty? Or am I not guilty? Why, then am I labeled as such in every language? What sort of wretched invention is human language, when it says one thing and means another?� P 240 �Here the young man has rewritten Job�s story��

From the New Yorker 3/26/05:

�A satirical caricature in the Copenhagen magazine The Corsair, published at the height of his (Kierkegaard) local celebrity, shows him standing at the center of a revolving belt of stars, everyday objects, prominent Copenhagen structures, and the sun itself. The caption reads (See NY copy in Vol I �Either/Or):

�There are moments when one�s ideas become confused and one thinks that Nicolas Copernicus was a fool when he maintained that the earth revolved around the sun. On the contrary, the heavens, the sun, the planets, the earth, Europe, and Copenhagen revolve around Soren Kierkegaard, who stands silently in the center and does not even remove his hat for the honor shown him.�

A question is, of course, whether Kierkegaard believed that each person�s existence is the center of the universe.

Regards,

Bob Fanelli