14 - Kierkegaard and the Development of Nineteenth-Century Continental Philosophy: Conclusions, Reflections, and Reevaluations

Summary

Instead of Kierkegaard's Relations to Hegel Reconsidered, the present study might with equal justice be entitled Kierkegaard's Relations to Danish Hegelianism since the investigation has again and again led back to the Danish context in which Hegel's thought was employed and critically discussed at the time. However, the value of this study lies not so much in its treatment of Kierkegaard's relation to the forgotten figures of the Danish Hegelian movement but rather in the ways in which the interpretation of Kierkegaard presented here will affect what has come to be the standard reading of nineteenth-century European philosophy. The emphasis on Kierkegaard's relation to the Danish Hegelians will doubtless strike many readers as overly specialized and of purely historical interest. Yet, if the research put forth in the present investigation is correct, then the standard picture of Kierkegaard's role in the development of nineteenth-century European philosophy will need to be substantially revised.

The goal of the present chapter is to sketch the most significant of these revisions. In order to appreciate the importance of these, it will be necessary to cast a brief glance at the common picture of Kierkegaard's place in European thought vis-à-vis Hegel that has been produced as a result of the general paradigm presented by Thulstrup and others. I will begin by reviewing the main conclusions of the present study in order to obtain an overview of the mass of information examined here.