Product Description

Stages on Life's Way, the sequel to Either/Or, is an intensely poetic example of Kierkegaard's vision of the three stages, or spheres, of existence: the esthetic, the ethical, and the religious. With characteristic love for mystification, he presents the work as a bundle of documents fallen by chance into the hands of "Hilarius Bookbinder," who prepared them for printing. The book begins with a banquet scene patterned on Plato's Symposium. (George Brandes maintained that "one must recognize with amazement that it holds its own in this comparison.") Next is a discourse by "Judge William" in praise of marriage "in answer to objections." The remainder of the volume, almost two-thirds of the whole, is the diary of a young man, discovered by "Frater Taciturnus," who was deeply in love but felt compelled to break his engagement. The work closes with a letter to the reader from Taciturnus on the three "existence-spheres" represented by the three parts of the book.

Stages on Life's Way not only repeats themes, characters, and pseudonymous authors of the earlier works but also goes beyond them and points to further development of central ideas in Concluding Unscientific Postscript.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #213767 in Books
• Published on: 1988-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 808 pages

Review
The definitive edition of the Writings. The first volume . . . indicates the scholarly value of the entire series: an introduction setting the work in the context of Kierkegaard's development; a remarkably clear translation; and concluding sections of intelligent notes.
(Library Journal )

Language Notes
Text: English, Danish (translation)

Customer Reviews

A "Repetition" on Either/Or
This book is a second and more complete version of Either/Or. It is more complete in that instead of ending with a sermon (The edification to be found in the thought that before God we are all in the wrong)as does Either/Or, it actually explores the religious sphere, the highest sphere of existence in Kierkegaard's schema. As in all of Kierkegaard's writings, this is not an abstract exploratiton of the spheres, but is embodied in characters, the most characters in any of Kierkegaard's work. It is an alarmingly complex and aggravating work. The aggravation comes in with the characters occassionally demanding to know whether the reader has a life and how can s/he possibly waste his time with drivel like this. The work is divided into three parts, one for each sphere. The aesthetic sphere is represented by a updating of Plato's Symposium, with Kierkegaard repeating a number of pervious characters, (Constantine Constantinus, Victor Eremita, the Young Man, Johannes the Seducer) and introducing a new character, the Fashion designer. The subject of the speeches: Women. The second part, presenting the Ethical sphere, heralds the return of Judge William from the second part of Either/Or, this time uncomfortably sandwiched between the Aesthetic and the religious spheres. In Either/Or he is smug, but in this book he cannot pretend his position has any kind of ultimacy. The Religious calls his position constantly into question. The ethical is the relative, the religious the absolute. The Ethical claims we should repent our sins, while the religous claims that all the sins of the world are our sins, and not only collectively, but individually. We must repent the sins of the entire world. This is something the ethical cannot accept. The Religious sphere is represented by "Quidams's Diary." This is a repetition on the "Seducer's diary" which ends the first half of Either/Or. This time, however, the principal is a sufferer instead of a predator. He is hopeless, sad and sorrowful having just ended an unhappy love affair. This sorrow launches him beyond the ethical into a dark night of the soul. The Diary entries are interpursed,on the fifth of each month (Kierkegaard was born on the fifth of May) by brilliant little stories which comment on the process of the soul's healing. Frater Taciturnus (Brother Silent, perhaps related to Johannes de silento of Fear and Trembling?) also provides a commentary. The problem with the book is that once Kierkegaard claimed that he wanted his reader to expend as much effort reading his books as he did in writing them. He has made sure in this case that he would achieve this goal. If it weren't for the quality and overwhelming wealth of the content, this one wouldn't worth it. As it is, you should probably read the earlier books of Kierkegaard's authorship first. With this one, you need all the help you can get.

One of the greatest books ever written
For a long time, _Stages on Life's Way_ sat atop the list of my favorite books of all time. This book is a gut-wrenching account of Kierkegaard's tragic problems with women, and is a vivid portrait of a man who is snake-bit in his love life. I can especially relate to this book, being that I am not married, most likely never will be married, and am singlemindedly obsessed with sitting around reading philosophers like Kierkegaard and Jung. I can honestly attest that I broke up with the love of my life, with no regrets, just because she was preventing me from reading as much Kierkegaard as I would have liked. And this is eerily similar to Kierkegaard's own experience in this book.

Although this book still qualifies as non-fiction philosophy, it often has an autobiographical, and sometimes outright ficticious feel to it. This ultimately enhances the readability of the book, because it often refers to situations inspired by the author's own experiences; these real-life situations then help to exemplify and clarify Kierkegaard's key concepts. It is frustrating to read authors who expound one abstract theory after another and never bother to set-up a realistic situation in which these human-behavioral concepts might come into play. Kierkegaard is almost never guilty of doing this. His style is always firmly grounded in reality, and is thereby more readily translatable than most other authors from the same time period.

I highly recommend this book to anyone out there, especially someone who, like myself, has found himself torn between a philosophy-centered avocation and a love life which always seems to be trying to tear us away from our real passions and duties. If I could give it 6 stars I would. Unconditionally recommended.

Agreed, one of the greatest books.
This book moves from comic fiction to beautiful oration, to intense tragedy, to accessible philosophical analysis--in that order. I can say about the first section: I laughed out loud. You don't think about that with Kierkegaard, but he was a writer's writer--could have been anything. Concerning the second section, I read a portion during a best man speech and it brought people to tears. The pastor requested a copy. And for the last two sections, it was hard going; so tragic to see a mind fall apart in fiction, and then to have it explained. But SK was, as is said above, explaining his theory of existence-spheres, which is a surprisingly down-to-earth concept of great usefulness to anyone. SK is consistently misinterpreted by philosophy buffs, but I tell you from experience, if you live his writings alongside him, you will understand and be the better for it. SK is a St. Paul for our time, and because of this book I dodged a few bullets: big ones! SK has four types of books: propositional (e.g. this one), psychological (e.g. The Concept of Anxiety), polemic (e.g. the Moment essays), and homiletic (e.g. Without Authority), and ALL fall under the category of inspirational. Look up his self-written epitaph. May he rest in peace, and he writes peace to those who genuinely seek it in Christ; thus he is often misunderstood as just another "philosopher."