This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Westfall, J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Ironic midwives

Socratic maieutics in Nietzsche and Kierkegaard

Department of Social Sciences, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX, USA

In this article, I argue that despite their philosophical differences, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard share a philosophical method or style rooted in the irony of Socrates. Such irony, when used to distance the author of a written work from its reader, effects the same sort of relationship between the author and the truth as was characteristic of Socrates. Thus, by way of writing in a certain, artful way, both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are able to pull away from their readers, depriving themselves of all authority and leaving the question of what is true in what they write ultimately up to the consideration, discernment and interpretation of the reader. As such, I conclude, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard are akin as two different instances of the Socratic midwife or maieutician.

Key Words: authority • authorship • irony • Søren Kierkegaard • maieutics • Friedrich Nietzsche • Socrates • style

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Vol. 35, No. 6, 627-648 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0191453709104450


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?