A confusion of the spheres: Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein on philosophy and religion

Schönbaumsfeld, Genia (2007) A confusion of the spheres: Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein on philosophy and religion , Oxford, UK. Oxford University Press, 224pp.

Abstract

Description: Fresh insight into Kierkegaard's influence on Wittgenstein Forceful and clearly-articulated arguments; in-depth analysis of primary and secondary literature Original contribution to key themes in the philosophy of religion Cursory allusions to the relation between Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein are common in philosophical literature, but there has been little in the way of serious and comprehensive commentary on the relationship of their ideas. Genia Schönbaumsfeld closes this gap and offers new readings of Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's conceptions of philosophy and religious belief.
Chapter one documents Kierkegaard's influence on Wittgenstein, while chapters two and three provide trenchant criticisms of two prominent attempts to compare the two thinkers, those by D. Z. Phillips and James Conant. In chapter four, Schönbaumsfeld develops Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's concerted criticisms of certain standard conceptions of religious belief, and defends their own positive conception against the common charges of 'irrationalism' and 'fideism'.
As well as contributing to contemporary debate about how to read Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's work, A Confusion of the Spheres addresses issues which not only concern scholars of Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard, but anyone interested in the philosophy of religion, or the ethical aspects of philosophical practice as such.
Readership: Advanced students and scholars of the philosophy of Wittgenstein or Kierkegaard; those with an interest in philosophy and theology and their history.
Contents: Introduction 1. Kierkegaard's Influence on Wittgenstein's Thought 2. The Point of Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Authorship 3. Sense and Ineffabilia - Kierkegaard and the Tractatus 4. A Confusion of the Spheres - Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's Conception of Religious Belief Conclusion Index

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