ABSTRACT
My topic here is some aspects of Kierkegaard’s interpretation of ethics. It’s often assumed that Kierkegaard has only one account, the account of ethical existence discussed by Judge William (or Wilhelm) in Either/Or II, an account that is presumably suspended by the time Kierkegaard publishes Fear and Trembling. But things are not that simple. Either/Or, rich as it is, is but a single foray into the varied terrain of the ethical. One could even say there is a view of the ethical embedded in each of the dozen or so major texts of the Kierkegaardian authorship. The Discourses might provide an approach that stressed a number of the cardinal and theological virtues – hope, say, or patience. Repetition would contrast with the view in the Discourses, and The Concept of Angst might have a slightly contrasting view of ethics, and so on through the authorship.
