Gesellschaft und Kritische Philosophie. Kierkegaards und Jaspers’ Analyse der geistigen Situation Europas im Vergleich

Abstract

Abstract Kierkegaard is an epochal philosopher who represented-not only in himself, but also in his philosophical Total-Tanke-the signs and concerns of an entire age: he defined not only his own Danish Golden Age, but he also contributed significantly to understanding its own deeper crisis through a relentless critique of culture and society in nineteenth-century Copenhagen. In the context of the analysis and the reception of A Literary Review (En Literair Anmeldelse, 1846), and in relation to Kierkegaard’s influence on philosophical and sociological perspectives in contemporary criticism, this paper explores: 1) Kierkegaard’s influence on Karl Jaspers’ book Man in the Modern Age (Die geistige Situation der Zeit, 1931) with particular reference to the latter’s conception of modernity and mass society; 2) the philosophical assumptions underlying the “European spiritual situation” and the destructive aspects of contemporary mass society according to Kierkegaard’s social and political thought; 3) the relevance of Kierkegaard’s diagnosis of the crisis as an opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of the origin and the nature of human existence.