“Existence is the Spatiating”: Typographical Thinking and the Concept of Existence in Kierkegaard’s Postscript

Abstract

Abstract This paper argues that Kierkegaard uses “spatiation”—a typographical mode of emphasis—to conceptualise human existence and simultaneously call into question the givenness or stability of a concept of existence. In Concluding Unscientific Postscript, spatiation serves as a potent visual of the problem of existence. By conceptualising existence as spatiating, Climacus at once emphasises and dissolves his concept to encourage thinking about what it means to exist without resolving the difficulties of actual existence. While largely overlooked in Kierkegaard scholarship, taking into account spatiation thus offers insights into Kierkegaard’s influential foregrounding of existence and his existentially oriented approach to philosophising that seeks to engage his readers as existing and embodied individuals.