In Kierkegaard's and Heidegger's Analysis of Existence and its Relation to Proclamation (1950), Løgstrup offers an original critique of these key thinkers. Arguing against their idea that 'life in the crowd' threatens individuality, he proposes an ethic beyond social rules: a requirement to care for a person whose life is placed in your hands.
The great Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-81) offers a distinctive assessment and comparative critique of two key thinkers in Kierkegaard's and Heidegger's Analysis of Existence and its Relation to Proclamation (1950). Løgstrup focuses on the central idea from Kierkegaard and Heidegger that our individuality and authenticity are threatened by 'life in the crowd' or 'das Man'. According to Løgstrup, Kierkegaard holds that the only way to escape the crowd is through a relation to an infinite demand which he nonetheless leaves empty, while Heidegger avoids offering any kind of ethics at all. Arguing against both philosophers, Løgstrup himself proposes an ethic which is not just a set of social rules, but which is also more contentful than Kierkegaard's infinite demand: namely, the requirement to care for the other person whose life is placed in your hands. This call to care for the other person becomes central to Løgstrup's position in his most famous publication The Ethical Demand (1956), so this earlier work, based on lectures given in Berlin, provides a crucial insight into the development of his thought. This is the first English translation of an original and compelling text by Løgstrup, rendered into accurate prose and paired with an introduction which explains the main themes and wider context of the work.
In January 1950, the Danish philosopher and theologian K.E. Løgstrup delivered a series of lectures at the Freie University in West Berlin. Originally published in German at the time, and now here appearing in English as part of a four-volume series of his key works translated by Robert Stern and others, the result is one of the finest comparative studies of Kierkegaard and Heidegger ever written. There is the old adage about Løgstrup which works engaging him inevitably reference when observing his importance to Denmark but relative obscurity elsewhere: verdensberømt i Denmark ("world-famous in Denmark"). No longer! With this eminently readable English translation from Robert Stern and colleagues, the long overdue reception of one of the twentieth century's great thinkers has finally begun.
