With the publication at the end of 2020 of the ninth volume of Kierkegaard's Lectures (1848-1855) and the tenth volume of Selected Kierkegaard Diaries (1842-1846), the ten-volume edition has been published. Since June 2009, under the coordination of the China Social Sciences Publishing House, a total of three translators have participated, and the relevant institutions of China and Denmark have worked together, and a set of essays systematically introducing the ideas of the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard have finally all been on the shelves of Chinese readers.
Book Series Introduction:
The Kierkegaard Anthology is a collaborative project of the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Kierkegaard Research Center in Denmark. It is not only the first systematic translation of Kierkegaard's selected works directly from the Danish original text in China, but also aims to become an academic classic that guides this field of study. The translation is based on the latest Danish academic edition of the Complete Works of Kierkegaard, which brings together the latest research results of Danish linguists and Kierkegaard research experts from all over the world, providing a strong reference for the translation of Chinese anthologies.
About the Author:
Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a Danish psychologist and poet of religious philosophy, the founder of modern existential philosophy, the forerunner of postmodernism, and the forerunner of modern humanistic psychology. Studied at the University of Copenhagen. After inheriting a huge inheritance, he lived in Copenhagen for life, writing about things, mostly publishing at his own expense. His ideas became one of the theoretical bases of existentialism and are generally regarded as the father of existentialism.
Translator's Bio:
Wang Qi, Doctor of Philosophy, was born in August 1968 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. He graduated from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1996 with a Doctorate degree. He is currently a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, the director of the Research Office of the History of Western Philosophy, and the vice president of the All-China Society for the History of Foreign Philosophy. He mainly focuses on the history of Western philosophy, and his research direction is existential philosophy and Christian philosophy.
Jingbute (Feng Jun, Zhengxiu), Jimbut / Jun Feng. Born in Shanghai in 1965. He was granted Danish citizenship in 2000. He currently lives in Berlin – Copenhagen. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Shanghai Normal University in 1986, his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Department of Philosophy, Oudensudns South Danish University in 1999, and his Magister Artium in Philosophy in 2002. The most important contemporary Kirkgaard translator, he is also a poet, playwright, theater producer, and actor. Published several Danish poetry collections, plays and translations by Kilkgaard.
Tang Chenxi, born in 1968 in Jiyuan, Henan, studied abroad in 1989. Ph.D. in Germanic Language and Literature from Columbia University, usa, is currently a professor in the Department of German Language at the University of California, Berkeley, usa, and his research interests include modern and contemporary Western European literature, the history of Western European thought, interdisciplinary literary studies, and comparative literature.
Timeline of the publication of Kierkegaard's collected writings
Preface to the Chinese edition of Kierkegaard's Collected Writings
(Excerpt)
The Chinese edition of Kierkegaard's Collected Writings (10 volumes) is about to meet with readers. This anthology was jointly compiled and translated by the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Kierkegaard Research Center of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and published by the China Social Sciences Press. The anthology, which includes Kierkegaard's major works and is directly translated from the carefully collated Danish Complete Works of Kierkegaard published in recent years, is accurate and reliable, and as original as possible, which will be useful for Chinese readers to correctly understand the Danish philosopher's thought.
In the history of Western philosophy, Kierkegaard can be said to be a special figure. He was unknown during his lifetime, and his writings were rarely mentioned, but after half a century, people "rediscovered" him, especially after the First World War, with the rise and development of existential philosophy, his influence on the intellectual circles of Western countries was increasing. Jaspers once said: "The present state of philosophy is characterized by the fact that the philosophers Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were neglected during their lifetime, and have been despised in the history of philosophy for a long time, and whose importance is now growing. All the other philosophers after Hegel are losing power more and more, and today these two men are indisputably standing out as the truly great thinkers of their time. He goes so far as to say that it was Kierkegaard and Nietzsche who "opened our eyes." These words of Jaspers were not only his personal opinions, but also reflected the general opinions of the people at that time. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche did represent another western social trend that emerged after Hegel and was characterized by the prominent individual, as opposed to Hegelianism, which emphasized the universality of the spirit. If, in Hegel, "existence" is only an abstract link in the development of the absolute spirit itself, then the in-depth exploration and reflection of the meaning of "existence" ("survival") from the perspective of the individual begins with Kierkegaard.
Kierkegaard's philosophy is extremely individual, and his personal life experiences, personality, emotions, psychology, ideals, and pursuits are deeply permeated in his philosophical thoughts, so that we need to read his works in a different way than usual. Hegel once said in the introduction to lectures on the history of philosophy, "Facts and activities in the history of philosophy are characterized by the fact that personality and individual character do not very much penetrate into its content and substance. This view can be applied to philosophers like Kant, whose writings can be read almost entirely without knowing his personal life experience, because the mechanical, orderly life of the study does not seem to add any personality to his thoughts, as Heine said, "Kant's life is difficult to describe." For he has neither life nor history" (On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany). For Kierkegaard, however, Hegel's view was completely unsuitable. Kierkegaard's entire thought is intimately connected to his personal life and experience, and many of his writings are in fact of a spiritual autobiographical character to varying degrees, from which we can hear his inner monologues and the call of life in various life situations. He himself confessed frankly that "the subject of everything I write is only and entirely my own". Therefore, to understand his philosophy, it is first necessary to understand what kind of person he really is, what kind of things have happened in his short life, and what kind of influence it has had on the formation and development of his thoughts and character.
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