Undervisning ved Søren Kierkegaard Forskningscenteret

Siden slutningen af 1980’erne er studiet af Kierkegaard indgået som en fast del i Etik og Religionsfilosofi på Det Teologiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet. Alle BA-studerende i teologi har skullet læse Kierkegaards Philosophiske Smuler. Der er blevet skrevet talrige specialer og valgfagsopgaver i Kierkegaard, og studiet af Kierkegaard har været en central del af talrige kandidateksaminer. Denne faglige interesse for Kierkegaard er blevet ført videre i mange ph.d.-afhandlinger.

A study of the works of Copenhagen’s most radical author, Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Kierkegaard’s entire authorship is centered around the existential project that confronts every human being: to become oneself and none other than oneself. This course examines his witty, humorous, but also deeply earnest, exploration of self-identity. We remain especially attentive to the ways in which Kierkegaard’s thought is critical of inherited ethnic and cultural definitions of self, and study how his approach is uniquely modern.

This course constructs a philosophical framework for the interdisciplinary examination of gender. Against a historical outline of the development of contemporary gender studies, we examine biological, sociological, and psychological perspectives on gender. These theoretical perspectives are put into discussion with ethical issues concerning sexuality, selfhood, personal identity, and autonomy.

Focusing on thinkers from Continental Europe like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, and Copenhagen’s own Søren Kierkegaard, this course traces the development of the conception of ‘selfhood’ in the 19th and 20th centuries. We study how ethical thinking has moved from the language of duty to that of personal answerability, and how the search for meaningful personal existence has increasingly become the responsibility of the individual.

We explore the evolution of religious thinking in the 19th and early 20th centuries, much of which was a response to the Enlightenment demand that religion justify itself in terms of rationality. We examine authors such as Hegel, Feuerbach, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, James, Otto, Bultmann, Tillich, and Lindbeck. This course is interdisciplinary and includes readings and discussions relevant for philosophy, theology, and religious studies.

The past two decades have seen an explosive surge in neuroscientific explanations of human nature, promising clearcut biological answers to hackneyed philosophical questions concerning rationality, emotion, behavior, value, and ethics. This course sets out to examine to what extent such a promise is warranted – in particular concerning existential questions such as anxiety, responsibility, and religious faith.

Mental illness is an increasing problem involving dramatic personal and socioeconomic costs. Developments in genetics, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience over the last two decades have made it obvious for psychiatrists and psychologists alike that the question ‘what is mental illness?’ is still an open question that requires interdisciplinary resources. In this course, we attempt to develop a solid conceptual framework for the interdisciplinary exploration of mental illness. This course is an introduction to the burgeoning field of philosophy of psychiatry.

The course takes a Danish perspective on common existential themes by reading the world famous local philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, in his hometown and at his own university. The main topic of the course is Søren Kierkegaard's witty and deeply earnest exploration of the problem of self-identity. Beginning with the breakdown of culture-specific ethnic and religious categories that have traditionally defined the self, the course treats Kierkegaard's scathing critique of religious culture and politics, his view that religious demands can conflict with seemingly universal ethical duties, and his assertion that the look of the Other is a defining factor in self-identity.