42 Philosophybricks in an impersonal science of
being, Kierkegaard pioneered a new
way of doing philosophy. His books
are playful, literary, disorienting.
One wonders what Copenhageners
thought when a title like Philosoph-
ical Crumbs appeared in Reitzel’s
Bookshop, followed by a much lon-
ger Concluding Unscientific Postscript
to Philosophical Crumbs. No less
bewildering was the army of pseud-
onyms, with names like Johannes
Climacus, Constantin Constantius,Anti-Climacus, and Vigilius Hauf-
niensis, ‘the watcher of the market-
place/Copenhagen,’ the enigmatic
Magister Kierkegaard lurking in the
authorial shadows.
Two other flesh-and-blood people
haunt those books. The first is his fa-
ther, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard,
who grew up dirt poor in the Jutland
countryside, became a rich merchant,
and spent his long retirement watch-
ing helplessly as his seven children
began to die one by one. Convincedhe was being punished - perhaps for
cursing God as a frozen shepherd boy
out on the heath, perhaps for im-
pregnating the family’s maid while in
mourning for his first wife - the old
man passed his pathological guilt on
to Søren, his youngest. When Mi-
chael died in August 1838, Søren
and his older brother Peter found
themselves at a loss. They’d expected
the family curse to carry them off be-
fore their father. Survival was never
part of the plan.MY TRAVELS WITH KIERKEGAARDKierkegaard
pioneered a new way
of doing philosophy.
His books are playful,
literary, disorienting.42 Philosophybricks in an impersonal science of
being, Kierkegaard pioneered a new
way of doing philosophy. His books
are playful, literary, disorienting.
One wonders what Copenhageners
thought when a title like Philosoph-
ical Crumbs appeared in Reitzel’s
Bookshop, followed by a much lon-
ger Concluding Unscientific Postscript
to Philosophical Crumbs. No less
bewildering was the army of pseud-
onyms, with names like Johannes
Climacus, Constantin Constantius,
Anti-Climacus, and Vigilius Hauf-
niensis, ‘the watcher of the market-
place/Copenhagen,’ the enigmatic
Magister Kierkegaard lurking in the
authorial shadows.
Two other flesh-and-blood people
haunt those books. The first is his fa-
ther, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard,
who grew up dirt poor in the Jutland
countryside, became a rich merchant,
and spent his long retirement watch-
ing helplessly as his seven children
began to die one by one. Convincedhe was being punished - perhaps for
cursing God as a frozen shepherd boy
out on the heath, perhaps for im-
pregnating the family’s maid while in
mourning for his first wife - the old
man passed his pathological guilt on
to Søren, his youngest. When Mi-
chael died in August 1838, Søren
and his older brother Peter found
themselves at a loss. They’d expected
the family curse to carry them off be-
fore their father. Survival was never
part of the plan.MY TRAVELS WITH KIERKEGAARD
Kierkegaard
pioneered a new way
of doing philosophy.
His books are playful,
literary, disorienting.