Kierkegaard’s and Heidegger’s Analysis of Existence and its Relation to Proclamation

The great Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Logstrup (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). Logstrup 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 Logstrup, 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, Logstrup 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 Logstrup’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 Logstrup, rendered into accurate prose and paired with an introduction which explains the main themes and wider context of the work.