ABSTRACT
Kierkegaard often expresses ambivalence toward the political concerns of his day. He regularly expresses both his ignorance of political issues in general and his disdain for religious and political reformers, but he will also offer sophisticated defenses of his purported apolitical views while at the same time offering a critique of the theoretical assumptions that justify a particular political movement. This ambivalence is illustrated in a series of letters exchanged between Kierkegaard and the law professor J.L.A. Kolderup-Rosenvinge. These letters address two topics-the idea of movement or walking and the domain and nature of the political. Each topic is initially addressed rather playfully and progressively becomes more serious in subsequent letters. In this article, I will begin by giving a brief overview of KolderupRosenvinge’s life and work since he is a rather obscure nineteenth-century Danish figure. I will also provide a complete account of Kierkegaard’s references to and correspondence with Kolderup-Rosenvinge. Finally, I will address Kierkegaard’s “theory of motion” which is described in a letter to Kolderup-Rosenvinge as it pertains to Kierkegaard’s approach to political questions.
