Selves in Discord and Resolve

This work examines the existentialist, Wittgensteinian, deconstructive, and post-analytical accounts of subjectivity to illuminate the rich legacy left by Kierkegaard's representation of the self in modes of self-understanding and self-articulation. Contending that Kierkegaard's philosophy poses powerful alternatives to contemporary accounts of moral conviction in an uncertain world, the author situates Kierkegaard in the context of a post-Nietzchean crisis of individualism. Kierkegaard is presented as a psychologist, philosopher, poet, dialectician, existentialist and "post-analytical" philosopher. Drawing upon the work of Charles Taylor and Thomas Nagel, Mooney evokes the Socratic influences on Kierkegaard's thinking and shows how Kierkegaard's philosophy relies upon the notion of Socratic care for the soul.