Kierkegaard's Critique of Reason and Society

Kierkegaard is usually filed under the solitary self: the lone individual standing before God, turned away from the crowd. Merold Westphal argues for a different figure, a thinker whose work belongs to what we now call the critique of ideology, alert to the political and social forces that shape how people live and believe.

At the centre of the argument is reason itself. Westphal's Kierkegaard does not abandon it but affirms a reason that knows its own nature, taking on its responsibilities without claiming more than it can do. A concise, focused study for readers of philosophy who suspect there is more to Kierkegaard than his reputation allows.