Review of Kierkegaard and Socrates: A Study in Philosophy and Faith

Abstract

Jacob Howland's Kierkegaard and Socrates: A Study in Philosophy and Faith is a welcome and solid contribution to a handful of philosophical discussions. By training, Howland is a student of Plato's writings; and as his publication record indicates, he is a Plato scholar first and foremost. Consequently, Kierkegaard and Socrates is perhaps best conceived as the debut offering of a lover of Socrates in the realm of Kierkegaard studies. As Howland tells the story, it all began innocently enough: "During an idle moment in my office at the university, now well over ten years ago, I selected from my bookcase a thin blue hardcover volume that I had never before opened. The book was Philosophical Fragments, by Johannes Climacus" (1). Thus began the affair, and thus begins a book that Socrates himself would likely be inclined to call the offspring of this affair. Born of a seemingly chance encounter, what Howland ultimately discovers in his engagement with Philosophical Fragments is a kind of dramatic philosophical recreation, with Kierkegaard playing the part of Plato, Climacus cast in the role of Socrates, and the speculative idealists filling in for the sophists. The topic of discussion: the nature of philosophy, the nature of faith, and the relationship between the two in the life of an existing individual. Consisting of ten chapters and an epilogue, Howland's study is, as promised, relatively "straightforward" in its development (7). With the exceptions of Chapters 1, 3, and 10, each of Howland's chapters corresponds nearly one-to-one to the pieces of Philosophical Fragments. Chapter 2 deals with the "Preface," and Fragments I: "Thought-Project." Chapter 4 deals with Fragments II: "The God as Teacher and Savior." Chapter 5 deals with Fragments III: "The Absolute Paradox." Chapter 6 deals with the "Appendix" to Fragments III: "Offense at the Paradox." Chapter 7 deals with Fragments IV: "The Situation of the Contemporary Follower." Chapter 8 deals