Description:
The great Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. L�gstrup (1905-81) offers a distinctive assessment and comparative critique of two key thinkers in Kierkegaard's and Heidegger's Analysis of Existence and its Relation to Proclamation (1950). L�gstrup focuses on the central idea from Kierkegaard and Heidegger that our individuality and authenticity are threatened by 'life in the crowd' or 'das Man'. According to L�gstrup, Kierkegaard holds that the only way to escape the crowd is through a relation to an infinite demand which he nonetheless leaves empty, while Heidegger avoids offering any kind of ethics at all. Arguing against both philosophers, L�gstrup himself proposes an ethic which is not just a set of social rules, but which is also more contentful than Kierkegaard's infinite demand: namely, the requirement to care for the other person whose life is placed in your hands. This call to care for the other person becomes central to L�gstrup's position in his most famous publication The Ethical Demand (1956), so this earlier work, based on lectures given in Berlin, provides a crucial insight into the development of his thought. This is the first English translation of an original and compelling text by L�gstrup, rendered into accurate prose and paired with an introduction which explains the main themes and wider context of the work.
