Soren Kierkegaard: Harald Hoffding (1912)
Channel: Craig Campbell
Date: 2012-11-30

Harald Hoffding was a Danish scholar who wrote about psychology, ethics, the philosophy of religion, the problems of philosophy and the history of modern philosophy. He was born in 1843, the same year Soren Kierkegaard published his book Either/Or, and died in 1931. He wrote a biography about Soren Kierkegaard in Danish in 1892 translated into German 1896. He also wrote about Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). He said, "Nietzsche's chief aim is to establish a new, positive estimate of life on the basis of historical facts of civilization." He wanted to "consider science from the viewpoint of art and art from the viewpoint of life." 
Kierkegaard was interested in science and art also but he was most interested in how an existing individual appropriates the truth that exists for that individual. How does an individual take the artistic representation of love and make it her own? Is it possible or must the individual try to love to learn what love is? How can you tell a copy from the original? 

He wrote, "With regard to the subject's relation to known truth, it is assumed that if only the objective truth has been obtained, appropriation is an easy matter; it is automatically included as part of the bargain, and in the end the individual is a matter of indifference. Precisely this is the basis of the scholar's elevated calm and the parroter's comical thoughtlessness."  Soren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, 1846 p. 21-22
This reading is from A Brief History of Modern Philosophy (1912) p. 200-205. Sixth book. His Ninth Book p. 289ff deals with the problems of knowledge and value.  

This is a link to the book which is in the public domain. http://www.archive.org/stream/abriefhistoryofm00hoffuoft#page/200/mode/1up