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Kierkegaard as Educator: Paideia, Seduction and the Ways of the Negative

In his journal, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard contemplated: “A man who cannot seduce men cannot save them either.” The trope of the seducer as savior, or more modestly, as teacher and educator, has since Socrates been the original sin and first glory of philosophy. Seduction, or drawing aside (seducere) is the art of leading and leading away from. But whereto? Wherewith? As youth corrupted and maiden abandoned, where does the seduced stand, where must we head toward, all of us who have been seduced by philosophy, and had wanted to be? The soul craves direction through indirection; detours, wanderings, deferrals and countless reiterations and repetitions—so many “No”s must lead it through its self-becoming. This half-day symposium, titled “Kierkegaard as Educator: Paideia, Seduction and the Ways of the Negative” represents a collective inquiry by philosophers and readers of Kierkegaard at different stages on life’s way into how Kierkegaard conceives, enacts and transforms philosophy as paideia (education, a person’s intellectual and moral formation) through techniques of communication, eroticization and seduction.

Prof. Daniel Berthold (Bard College, author of The Ethics of Authorship: Communication, Seduction, and Death in Hegel and Kierkegaard) will expose Kierkegaard’s ethical project of seduction, de-seduction and the emancipation of the reader/student into her independence in The Seducer’s Diary and throughout Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous authorship. Prof. Marcia Morgan (Muhlenberg College, author of Kierkegaard and Critical Theory) will examine the difficult re-inheritance of Kierkegaard against himself by one of his best and most interesting readers, Theodor W. Adorno, started in his Habilitationschrift “Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic” (1933), published the day Hitler transitioned from Chancellor to Dictator and ending with his final essay, “Kierkegaard Once More” (1966). Prof. Richard J. Bernstein will join us for a discussion on Kierkegaard and his intellectual legacy in the philosophy department at the New School. Prof. James Dodd will make the concluding address on the questions of what it means to be a teacher and what is philosophical education.











When: Sat., May. 4, 2019 at 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Where: The New School
66 W. 12th St.
212-229-5108
Price: Free
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In his journal, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard contemplated: “A man who cannot seduce men cannot save them either.” The trope of the seducer as savior, or more modestly, as teacher and educator, has since Socrates been the original sin and first glory of philosophy. Seduction, or drawing aside (seducere) is the art of leading and leading away from. But whereto? Wherewith? As youth corrupted and maiden abandoned, where does the seduced stand, where must we head toward, all of us who have been seduced by philosophy, and had wanted to be? The soul craves direction through indirection; detours, wanderings, deferrals and countless reiterations and repetitions—so many “No”s must lead it through its self-becoming. This half-day symposium, titled “Kierkegaard as Educator: Paideia, Seduction and the Ways of the Negative” represents a collective inquiry by philosophers and readers of Kierkegaard at different stages on life’s way into how Kierkegaard conceives, enacts and transforms philosophy as paideia (education, a person’s intellectual and moral formation) through techniques of communication, eroticization and seduction.

Prof. Daniel Berthold (Bard College, author of The Ethics of Authorship: Communication, Seduction, and Death in Hegel and Kierkegaard) will expose Kierkegaard’s ethical project of seduction, de-seduction and the emancipation of the reader/student into her independence in The Seducer’s Diary and throughout Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous authorship. Prof. Marcia Morgan (Muhlenberg College, author of Kierkegaard and Critical Theory) will examine the difficult re-inheritance of Kierkegaard against himself by one of his best and most interesting readers, Theodor W. Adorno, started in his Habilitationschrift “Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic” (1933), published the day Hitler transitioned from Chancellor to Dictator and ending with his final essay, “Kierkegaard Once More” (1966). Prof. Richard J. Bernstein will join us for a discussion on Kierkegaard and his intellectual legacy in the philosophy department at the New School. Prof. James Dodd will make the concluding address on the questions of what it means to be a teacher and what is philosophical education.

Buy tickets/get more info now