Book 1, Either/Or : Chapter 9, Equilibrium Summary and Analysis

SK delves into philosophy. For him, philosophy is a mental intimate relationship to the past. He claims that contemplation can be useful when it enables regular people to take better care to make decisions that are rather right than wrong. He also complains that philosophy has made itself virtually useless as any kind of active endeavor. Kierkegaard would view the contemporary work in medical ethics as one of the view places where philosophy is actively and aggressively practiced in the present, but this was not the case during the time of his writing. At this point SK describes the point of view that he is using as belonging to a married man. He asserts that much of his life's pleasures derive from this state of affairs. He observes that the younger, single man's...