Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 1, 2008

Aesthetics and Philosophy of Arts

Kierkegaard's Pedagogue or Practice in Negative Dialectics

In his study “On the Concept of Irony” Kierkegaard characterizes irony several times as pedagogue. This alludes to Galatians 3,24f., according to which the law has been a pedagogue (‘Zuchtmeister’ in the relevant German translation, Luther 1984) in relation to Christian faith, and alludes further to the three uses of the law in Protestantism. Presented on this background the pedagogue becomes an important figure for the interpretation of irony and its negative dialectics in philosophy, religion and art. Drawing attention to the pedagogue in the emphatic sense might be helpful for a reading of Kierkegaard’s writings (both the pseudonymic and the edifying works) as well as for a genealogy of negative dialectics with all its modern and contemporary actualizations, e.g. in Adorno’s aesthetical theory or in Danto’s considerations concerning art and philosophy after Duchamp.