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Title
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The Dialectical Self: Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, and the Birth of Radical Freedom
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:8314f4518aae:11764
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identifier
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12394
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Creator
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Aroosi, Jamie Ray,
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Contributor
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Marshall Berman
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Date
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2013
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political science | Philosophy | Dialectical Self | Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel | German Idealism | Karl Heinrich Marx | Radical Freedom | Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
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Abstract
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This work advances two primary claims. First, it demonstrates that Karl Marx and Soren Kierkegaard can and should be read together, as they jointly constitute a similar development in 19th century thought. Notably, borrowing a model of dialectical subjectivity from their shared predecessor, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, while simultaneously rebelling against the primacy he gives to reason, both attempt to liberate this "dialectical self" so that it can embrace the radical understanding of freedom it embodies. Therefore, this work argues that a similar conception of the self, and the freedom it entails, unites the work of Marx and Kierkegaard, while also serving as a primary normative value orienting their work. However, for Marx, the social mechanics behind inequality serves as the major impediment to emancipation, whereas, for Kierkegaard, our internalization of social norms serves this role. Given that their intellectual projects were based in the praxis of emancipation, this difference explains why their work came to appear so different, as they each sought to articulate and overcome a different set of problems. Unfortunately, this also had the effect of obscuring their underlying, and profound, similarity. However, this work argues that these differences are in fact two sides of the same coin, and that Marx and Kierkegaard reciprocally, or dialectically, illuminate one another, as each teases out nuances and complexities in the other.;Secondly, I advance a normative claim: Marx needs Kierkegaard, just as Kierkegaard needs Marx. That is, Kierkegaard's concern with subjective emancipation without Marx's interest in sociopolitical emancipation remains an unfinished project, whereas Marx's sociopolitical critique without Kierkegaard's subjective emancipation remains an empty one. In other words, freedom pertains both to subjectivity and to the objective world, and unless we remain attentive to both, we risk reinforcing oppression just as we think we are overcoming it. And while Marx is attentive to subjectivity and Kierkegaard to objectivity, each does so insufficiently. Yet, reading them together offers a comprehensive picture of the dialectical self that unites them, while also allowing us to be attentive to the spiritual and ethical dynamics of subjective emancipation as well as the sociopolitical dynamics of objective emancipation. Not only can we read Marx and Kierkegaard together, a full understanding of our "dialectical selves" and the freedom they entail, requires it. .
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Political Science
