Affect and Paradox: Some Reflections on a Dare to Rejoice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26512/2358-82842021e41525Keywords:
Affect, Emotion, Ethics, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, OntologyAbstract
Few of us regard joy as an especially daring act, yet this is how we find Kierkegaard thinking of it in early 1853. This paper situates Kierkegaard’s “dare to rejoice” as a theological alternative to the solipsism of modernity’s “mirror of happiness,” which developed from late medieval thought and lives on in the ethical torpor of some contemporary theories of affect. This alternative, only briefly outlined here, is rooted in a theological ontology of paradox that gives to affect its real significance. The result is an audacious joy that enabled Kierkegaard to rejoice not only in his own suffering but also, perhaps even more remarkably, in the happiness of others—a joy I also see expressed in the traumatic life of a Congolese refugee I came to know.
Downloads
References
AHMED, Sara (2010). The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
ANSCOMBE, Elizabeth (1957). Intention. Oxford: Blackwell.
AQUINAS, Thomas (1968). Summa Theologiae, vol. 9. Translated by Kenelm Foster. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
AUGUSTINE (2010). The Happy Life. Translated by Roland J. Teske. In Trilogy on Faith and Happiness. Edited by Boniface Ramsey. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press.
BECKETT, Samuel (2011). Murphy. New York: Grove Press.
BENJAMIN, Walter (1998). The Origin of German Tragic Drama. Translated by John Osborne London: Verso.
BENNETT, Jonathan (1984). A Study of Spinoza’s Ethics. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
BERLANT, Lauren (2011). Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
BRUCKNER, Pascal (2011). Perpetual Euphoria: On the Duty to Be Happy. Translated by Steven Rendall. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
CAMUS, Albert (1991). The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt, Translated by Anthony Bower. New York: Vintage.
DAVIDSON, Donald (2001a). “Mental Events,” in Essays on Actions and Events. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DAVIDSON, Donald (2001b). Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
DELEUZE, Gilles (1990). Pourparlers. Paris: Minuit.
DELEUZE, Gilles (1994). Difference and Repetition. Translated by Paul Patton. New York: Columbia University Press.
DELEUZE, Gilles (1995). Negotiations. Translated by Martin Joughin. New York: Columbia University Press.
DELEUZE, Gilles (2005). “Immanence: A Life,” in Pure Immanence: Essays on a Life. Translated by Anne Boyman. New York: Zone Books.
DELEUZE, Gilles and GUATTARI, Félix (1983). Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, Helen R. Lane. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
DELEUZE, Gilles and GUATTARI, Félix (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
DERRIDA, Jacques (1995). Gift of Death. Translated by David Wills. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
DOOLEY, Mark (2015). Moral Matters: A Philosophy of Homecoming. London: Bloomsbury.
ELSHTAIN, Jean Bethke (2008). Sovereignty: God, State, and Self. New York: Basic Books.
FERREIRA, Gabriel (2019). “De Dicto e De Re: A Brandomian Experiment on Kierkegaard,” Revista de Filosofia Moderna e Contemporãnea. 2.7: 221-238.
FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb (1845). Anweisung zum seligen Leben. Sämmtliche Werke, vol. 5. Edited by Immanuel Hermann Fichte. Berlin: Veit und Comp.
FREUD, Sigmund (1961). Civilization and Its Discontents. Translated by James Strachey. New York: Norton.
FREUD, Sigmund (2009). Das Unbehagen in der Kultur und andere kulturtheoretische Schriften. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer.
FURNAL, Joshua (2016). Catholic Theology after Kierkegaard. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
GREGG, Melissa and SEIGWORTH, Greg J., eds. (2010). The Affect Theory Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
GUNN, James (1984). The Joy Makers. New York: Crown Publishers.
HABERMAS, Jürgen (1987). The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Translated by F. Lawrence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
HEGEL, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1975). Lectures on the Philosophy of World History: Introduction. Translated by Hugh Barr Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
HEGEL, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1977a). The Difference between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of Philosophy. Translated by H. S. Harris and Walter Cerf. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
HEGEL, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1977b). Phenomenology of Spirit. Translated by A. V. Miller. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
HEGEL, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1991). Elements of Philosophy of Right. Translated by H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
HEIDEGGER, Martin (1962). Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. New York: Harper & Row.
HEIDEGGER, Martin (2006). Sein und Zeit. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
HOBBES, Thomas (1998). Leviathan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
HOUGH, Sheridan (2015). Kierkegaard’s Dancing Tax Collector: Faith, Finitude, and Silence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
JAMES, William (1950). The Principles of Psychology. New York: Dover.
JARRETT, Charles (2007). Spinoza. London: Continuum.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1980a). Concept of Anxiety. Translated by Reidar Thomte and Albert B. Anderson. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1980b). Sickness Unto Death. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1983). Fear and Trembling. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1985). Philosophical Fragments. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1988). Stages on Life’s Way. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1989). The Concept of Irony, with Continual Reference to Socrates. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1990a). Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1990b). Judge for Yourself! Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1993). Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits. Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1997a). Christian Discourses, trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1997b). Without Authority, trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (1998). Philosophiske Smuler. Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, vol. 4. Copenhagen: Gads Forlag.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (2004). Christelige Taler. Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, vol. 10. Copenhagen: Gads Forlag.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren. (2008). Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks, vol. 2. Edited by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, David Kangas, Bruce H. Kirmmse, Vanessa Rumble, K. Brian Söderquist, and George Pattison. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (2011). Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks, vol. 4. Edited by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, David Kangas, Bruce H. Kirmmse, George Pattison, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, Vanessa Rumble, and K. Brian Söderquist. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren. (2017). Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks, vol. 9. Edited by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, Bruce H. Kirmmse, David D. Possen, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, and Vanessa Rumble. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
KIERKEGAARD, Søren (2018). Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks, vol. 10. Edited by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, Bruce H. Kirmmse, David D. Possen, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, and Vanessa Rumble. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
LEYS, Ruth (2017). The Ascent of Affect: Genealogy and Critique. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
LOCKE, John (1958). The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures, ed. I. T. Ramsey. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
LOCKE, John (1979). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Peter H. Nidditch. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MASSUMI, Brian (2015). The Politics of Affect. Cambridge: Polity Press.
MCDANIEL, Kris (2017). The Fragmentation of Being. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MCMAHON, Darrin M. (2006). Happiness: A History. New York: Grove Press.
MILTON, John (2008). The Major Works. Edited by Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MULDER, Jr., Jack. (2010). Kierkegaard and the Catholic Tradition. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
NAGEL, Thomas (1982). “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” in Mortal Questions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
NANCY, Jean-Luc (1997). The Sense of the World. Translated by Jeffrey S. Librett. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
PRZYWARA, Erich (1929). Das Geheimnis Kierkegaards. Munich: R. Oldenbourg.
PRZYWARA, Erich (2014). Analogia Entis: Metaphysics—Original Structure and Universal Rhythm. Translated by John R. Betz and David Bentley Hart. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
RAHNER, Karl (1950). “Eine Antwort,” Orientierung. 14: 141-145.
RAHNER, Karl (1978). Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity. Translated by William V. Dych. New York: Crossroad.
RICŒUR, Paul (1992). Oneself as Another. Translated by Kathleen Blamey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
RIEFF, Philip (1966). The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud. New York: Harper and Row.
RORTY, Amélie Oksenberg (1984). “Aristotle on the Metaphysical Status of ‘Pathe,’” The Review of Metaphysics. 37.3: 521-546.
RORTY, Amélie Oksenberg (2004). “Enough Already with the ‘Theory of Emotions,’” in Thinking about Feeling: Contemporary Philosophers on Emotions. Edited by Robert Solomon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ROSENKRANZ, J. Karl F. (1837). Psychologie oder die Wissenschaft vom subjektiven Geist. Königsberg: Verlage der Gebrüder Bornträge.
RUSSELL, Bertrand (1921). The Analysis of Mind. London: George Allen and Unwin.
RYLE, Gilbert (2009). The Concept of Mind. London: Routledge.
SAINT-JUST, Louis Antoine de (1908). Œuvres complètes, vol. 2. Paris: Eugéne Fasquelle.
SCHAEFER, Donovan O. (2015). Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, Power. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
SCHAEFER, Donovan O. (2019). The Evolution of Affect Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
SCHILLER, Friedrich (1838). Schillers sämmtliche Werke, vol. 1. Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta.
SCHLEIERMACHER, Friedrich (1996). On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. Translated by Richard Crouter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
SCHLEIERMACHER, Friedrich (2002). Lectures on Philosophical Ethics. Edited by Robert B. Louden. Translated by Louise Adey Huish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
SCHLEIERMACHER, Friedrich (2010). Christmas Eve Celebration: A Dialogue. Translated by Terrence N. Tice. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
SCHLEIERMACHER, Friedrich (2016). Christian Faith, vols. 1-2. Translated by Terrence N. Tice, Catherine L. Kelsey, and Edwina Lawler. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
SCOTUS, John Duns (2017). Selected Writings on Ethics. Edited and translated by Thomas Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
SHAFTESBURY, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of (1999). Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. Edited by Lawrence Klein. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
SPINOZA, Baruch (1992). Ethics. Translated by Samuel Shirley. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
TOMKINS, Silvan (2008). Affect, Imagery, Consciousness: The Complete Edition. Edited by Bertram P. Karon. New York: Springer.
THULSTRUP, Marie Mikulová (1991). Kierkegaard i kristenlivets historie. Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels.
UNAMUNO, Miguel de (2000). Mist: A Tragicomic Novel. Translated by Warner Fite . Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
WALSH, Sylvia (2005). Living Christianly: Kierkegaard’s Dialectic of Christian Existence. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
WEBB, Carson (2017). “Kierkegaard’s Critique of Eudaimonism: A Reassessment,” Journal of Religious Ethics. 45.3: 437-462.
WILLIAMS, Thomas (1995). “How Scotus Separates Morality from Happiness,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 69.3: 425-445.
WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig (1967). Zettel. Edited by G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright. Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. Berkeley: University of California Press.
WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig (1979). Wittgenstein’s Lectures: Cambridge 1932-35. Oxford: Blackwell.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Brazilian Journal for Philosophy of Religion
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
