Publisher's Synopsis
Soren Kierkegaard is one of the most important and influential figures in the history of European thought, representing the continental tradition of philosophy, but has been neglected by most British analytic philosophers. Anthony Rudd seeks to bridge the gap between the two traditions by showing analytic philosophers that Kierkegaard's ideas are relevant to their concerns.;This volume is a discussion of some of Kierkegaard's central ideas, showing their relevance to contemporary debates in epistemology, ethics and the philosophy of religion. Rudd's aim is not simply to expound Kierkegaard's ideas, but to draw on them creatively in order to illuminate questions about the foundations of morality and the nature of personal identity, as discussed by analytical philosophers such as MacIntyre, Parfit, Williams and Foot.;Rudd seeks a way forward from the sterile conflict between the view that morality and religion are based on objective reasoning, and the view that they are merely expressions of subjective emotions. He argues that morality and religion must be understood in terms of the individual's search for a sense of meaning in his or her own life, but emphasizes that this does not imply that values are arbitrary or merely subjective.
