''On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates'' ( da, Om Begrebet Ironi med stadigt Hensyn til Socrates) is
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , , ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on ...
's 1841
master's thesis under . This thesis is the culmination of three years of extensive study on
Socrates, as seen from the view point of
Xenophon,
Aristophanes, and
Plato.
"Reflections on Kierkegaard's Socrates"
by H. Sarf, ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', 1983.
His thesis dealt with irony
Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.
Irony can be categorized into ...
, and in particular, Socratic irony. In Part One, Kierkegaard regards Aristophanes' portrayal of Socrates, in Aristophanes' '' The Clouds'' to be the most accurate representation of the man. Whereas Xenophon and Plato portrayed Socrates seriously, Kierkegaard felt that Aristophanes best understood the intricacies of Socratic irony.
In the shorter Part Two of the dissertation, Kierkegaard compares Socratic irony with contemporary interpretations of irony. Here, he offers analysis of major 19th century writers and philosophers including Fichte, Schlegel, and Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
. One English translation of the book also contains his notes on Schelling's Berlin Lectures of 1841, which Kierkegaard attended shortly after finishing his dissertation.
References
Further reading
*For review of Kierkegaard analysis of Socratic irony
Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.
Irony can be categorized into ...
, see Kieran Egan '' The educated mind : how cognitive tools shape our understanding''. (1997), University of Chicago Press, Chicago , pp. 137–144.
*Harold Sarf, Reflections on Kierkegaard's Socrates, in: « Journal of the History of Ideas», volume number 44, issue number 2, April-June 1983, pages 255-276.
External links
*
D. Anthony on ''The Concept of Irony''
*Harold P. Sjursen,
Lecture on ''On The Concept of Irony''
1841 non-fiction books
Books about irony
Books by Søren Kierkegaard
Works about Socrates
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