ABSTRACT
Alastair Hannay positions this volume of selected essays as “a logical sequel” to his path-breaking 1982 work, Kierkegaard. As in Hannay’s previous work, people have an attempt to read Kierkegaard in such a way that he “stands in recognizable relationship to other thinkers who undeniably qualify as philosophers.” Hannay shows that Wittgenstein positions the Christian religion as the solution to a problem that certain human beings possess. For Kierkegaard, the terms of the problem are quite different. There is no general problem which some people have, to which Christianity then provides the solution; rather, “the Christian framework defines the problems.” In short, Kierkegaard offers an account of despair and faith that is, from beginning to end, fully inside a religious viewpoint, whereas Wittgenstein approaches the religious solution from the outside.
