Either/Or (Danish: Enten – Eller) is the first published work of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. It appeared in two volumes in 1843 under the pseudonymous editorship of Victor Eremita (Latin for "victorious hermit"). It outlines a theory of human existence, marked by the distinction between an essentially hedonistic, aesthetic mode of life and the ethical life, which is predicated upon commitment.
Either/Or portrays two life views. Each life view is written and represented by a fictional author, with the prose reflecting and depending on the life view. The aesthetic life view is written in short essay form, with poetic imagery and allusions, discussing aesthetic topics such as music, seduction, drama, and beauty. The ethical life view is written as two long letters, with a more argumentative and restrained prose, discussing moral responsibility, critical reflection, and marriage. The views are expressed as experiences embodied by the fictional authors. The book's central concern is Aristotle's primal question, "How should we live?" His motto comes from Plutarch, "The deceived is wiser than one not deceived."
The aesthetic is the personal, subjective realm of existence, where an individual lives and extracts pleasure from life for its own sake. This realm offers the possibility of the highest and lowest experiences. The ethical, on the other hand, is the civic realm of existence, where value and identity are judged and at times superseded by the objective world. The choice is whether to remain oblivious to the outside world or to become involved. More specifically, the ethical realm starts with a conscious effort to choose one's life. Either way it is possible to go too far in one direction and lose sight of the self. Only faith can rescue the individual from these two opposing realms. Either/Or concludes with a brief sermon hinting at the religious sphere of existence, which consumed most of Kierkegaard's publishing career. Ultimately, his challenge is for the reader to "discover a second face hidden behind the one you see" internally, and then in others.
Historical context After writing and defending his dissertation On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates (1841), Kierkegaard left Copenhagen in October 1841 to spend the winter in Berlin. His main purpose was to attend lectures by German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, an eminent figure at the time. The lectures disappointed many in Schelling's audience, including Mikhail Bakunin and Friedrich Engels, while Kierkegaard described it as "unbearable nonsense". During his stay, Kierkegaard worked on the manuscript for Either/Or, took daily lessons to perfect his German, and attended operas and plays, particularly by Mozart and Goethe. He returned to Copenhagen in March 1842 with a draft of the manuscript, which he completed late that year and published in February 1843.
According to a journal entry from 1846, Either/Or was written "lock, stock, and barrel in eleven months" ("Rub og Stub, i 11 Maaneder"),Søren Kierkegaard, Hong and Hong (ed.) Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers, Volume 5: Autobiographical, §5931 (p. 340)Søren Kierkegaard, Hong and Hong (ed.) Either/Or Volume 1, Historical Introduction, p. vii although a page from the "Diapsalmata" section in the "A" volume was written earlier.
The title Either/Or affirmed Aristotelian logic, particularly as modified by Johann Gottlieb FichteFichte (1762–1814) wrote against philosophy as a science in his books The Science of RightsThe Science of RightsThe Science of Knowledge and Immanuel Kant. Is the question, "Who am I?" a scientific question or one for the individual to answer?
Kierkegaard argues that Hegel's philosophy dehumanized life by denying personal freedom and choice through the neutralization of the "either/or". The dialectic structure of becoming renders existence far too easy, in Hegel's theory, because conflicts are eventually mediated and disappear through a natural process that requires no individual choice other than a submission to the Will of the Idea or Geist. Kierkegaard saw this as a denial of selfhood and instead advocated the importance of personal responsibility and choice.Beiser, Frederick C. The Cambridge Companion to Hegel. Cambridge, Watts, Michael. Kierkegaard. Oneworld, Either/Or Part II, Hong, p. 214ff
Structure The book is the first of Kierkegaard's works written pseudonymously, a practice he employed during the first half of his career.Magill, Frank N. Masterpieces of World Philosophy. HarperCollins, Gardiner, Patrick. Kierkegaard: Past Masters. Oxford, In this case, he employed four pseudonyms: "Victor Eremita" - the fictional compiler and editor, which he claims to have found in an antique escritoire. "A" - the fictional author of the first text ("Part I") by Victor Eremita, whose real name he claims not to have known. "B" "Judge Vilhelm" (or "Wilhelm"William McDonald, entry: "Kierkegaard" in "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy". - "William") - the fictional author of the second text ("Part II"). "Johannes" - the fictional author of a section of "Part I" titled "The Diary of a Seducer" and Cordelia his lover.
Publication Kierkegaard published the second edition of Either/Or on May 14, 1849, the same day he published The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air: Three Devotional Discourses.Translator's Introduction to Christian Discourses & The Lilies of the Field & the Birds of the Air & The Discourses at the Communion on Fridays by Soren Kierkegaard translated with an introduction by Walter Lowrie A Galaxy Book, Oxford University Press 1961 He published three books on the same day October 16, 1843.
Part I The first part describes the "aesthetic" phase of existence. It contains a collection of papers, notionally found by "Victor Eremita" and written by "A", the aesthete.
The aesthete, according to Kierkegaard, eventually falls into despair, a psychological state (explored further in Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety and The Sickness Unto Death) that results from a recognition of the limits of the aesthetic approach to life. Kierkegaard's "despair" is a somewhat analogous precursor of existential angst. The natural reaction is to make an eventual leap to the second phase, the ethical, which is characterized by rational choice and commitment that replace the capricious and inconsistent longings of the aesthetic mode.
Diapsalmata The first section of Part I is a collection of tangential aphorisms, epigrams, anecdotes, and musings on the aesthetic mode. The word "diapsalmata" is related to "psalms", and means "refrains". It contains some of Kierkegaard's best-known and poetic lines, such as "What is a poet?", "Freedom of Speech" vs. "Freedom of Thought", the "Unmovable chess piece", the tragic clown, and the laughter of the gods.Oden, Thomas C. Parables of Kierkegaard. Princeton University Press, .
Reading these as written shows a constant movement from the outer poetic experience to the inner experience of humor. The movement from the outer to the inner is a theme in Kierkegaard's works.
Immediate Stages of the Erotic, or Musical Erotic
This essay discusses the idea that music expresses sensuality. "A" evaluates Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, as well as Goethe's Faust. "A" accepts the task of proving, through the works of Mozart, that "music is a higher, or more spiritual art, than language". During this process, he offers three stages of the musical-erotic.Either/Or Part I, Swenson, p. 66ff, also see Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits 1847 Hong 1993 p. 183-188
He distinguishes a seducer such as Don Juan, who falls under aesthetic categories, and Faust, who falls under ethical categories. "The musical Don Juan enjoys the satisfaction of desire; the reflective Don Juan enjoys the deception, enjoys the cunning." Don Juan is split between the aesthetic and the ethical. He becomes lost in the multiplicity of the "1,003 women he has to seduce" (as in the famous aria "Madamina, il catalogo è questo"),Don Giovanni Act I, "But in Spain already are one thousand and three".Either/Or Part I, Swenson, p. 107, 190-191 Faust seduces just one woman.
This section deals with theological questions. "A" asks if God seduces 1,003 people at one time or if he seduces one individual at a time in order to make a believer. He writes: Achim v. Arnim tells somewhere of a seducer of a very different style, a seducer who falls under ethical categories. About him he uses an expression which in truth, boldness, and conciseness is almost equal to Mozart’s stroke of the bow. He says he could so talk with a woman that, if the devil caught him, he could wheedle himself out of it if he had a chance to talk with the devil’s grandmother. This is the real seducer; the aesthetic interest here is also different, namely: how, the method.
Essays read before the Symparanekromenoi
The next three sections are essay lectures from "A" to the "symparanekromenoi",August Strindberg spells it this way in his book Zones of the Spirit, Sympaschomenos (p. 220). a club or fellowship of the dead who practice the art of writing posthumous papers.
The first essay, which discusses ancient and modern tragedy, is the "Ancient Tragical Motif as Reflected in the Modern". He writes about tragedy's inner and outer aspects. Can remorse be shown on a stage? What about sorrow and pain? Which is easier to portray?Either/Or Part I, Swenson, pp. 145–147 He also discusses guilt, sin, fear, compassion, and responsibility in what can be considered a foreshadowing of Fear and Trembling and Repetition.Either/Or Part I, Swenson, p. 139-145 He then writes a modern interpretation of Antigone that presages The Concept of Anxiety.
The second essay, "Shadowgraphs: A Psychological Pastime", discusses modern heroines, including Mozart's Elvira and Goethe's Gretchen (Margaret). He studies how desire can come to grief. He asks whether love can be deceived.He writes about it again in Works of Love, Hong p. 235-245
He is asking whether one person can reveal the inner life of a historical figure. Psychologically he is asking whether psychologists can give an accurate account of the inner world. Religiously he's asking whether one person can accurately perceive the inner world of another. He conducts several thought experiments to attempt this.
The third essay, called "The Unhappiest One", discusses the hypothetical question: "who deserves the distinction of being unhappier than everyone else?" Kierkegaard has expanded his search for the highestEither/Or Part I, Swenson, p. 27 "sleeping is the highest", 32 "A good cut" of meat is the highest, 37-39 "Tautology is the highest law of thought", 46-47 "I will form a sect which not only gives Mozart first place", 59 "sensuousness is first posited in Christianity", 63 "Don Juan deserves the highest place', 68 music is higher than language, 101 "Don Juan is absolutely musical" to a search for the lowest.154-156 "Antigone's" "sorrow", 167-168 "grief", 177-178 "deception" which is for love an absolute paradox", 182ff the inability to decide if you've been deceived, 220-221 "unhappy consciousness" He wants to find the unhappy person by looking to the past. Is it Niobe, Job, the father of the prodigal son, or Periander,See Søren Kierkegaard, Stages on Life's Way, Hong, p. 323-328 Abraham or Christ?
Ultimately, for Kierkegaard, the aesthetical and the ethical are both superseded by a final phase which he terms the "religious" mode. This is introduced later in Fear and Trembling.
The First Love