Valuable Vice: Kierkegaard on Collective Envy in A Literary Review

In this paper, I explore Kierkegaard’s views on envy as developed in A Literary Review, by confronting them with the capital vices tradition. I begin by developing a basic account of envy that serves as a point of reference throughout the paper. I then turn to the capital vices tradition, elaboratin...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Compaijen, Rob (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI 2023
In: Religions
Year: 2023, Volume: 14, Issue: 11
Further subjects:B Kierkegaard
B Self-worth
B the public
B Facial Justice
B Ostracism
B collective character traits
B leveling
B deadly sins
B Envy
B capital vices
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Summary:In this paper, I explore Kierkegaard’s views on envy as developed in A Literary Review, by confronting them with the capital vices tradition. I begin by developing a basic account of envy that serves as a point of reference throughout the paper. I then turn to the capital vices tradition, elaborating the concept of a capital vice, and discussing the views of Basil of Caesarea, Evagrius of Pontus, John Cassian, Gregory the Great, and Thomas Aquinas on envy’s viciousness. Subsequently, I discuss Kierkegaard’s treatment of envy in A Literary Review, exploring two of its key notions—‘the public’ and ‘leveling’—through a reading of L.P. Hartley’s novel Facial Justice (1960). In the final part of the paper, I show that the originality of Kierkegaard’s account of envy consists both in its character as a collective vice and its evaluative status as vicious yet valuable.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel14111397