‎KIERKEGAARD, SØREN.‎
‎Philosophiske Smuler eller en Smule Philosophi. Af Johannes Climacus. Udgivet af S. Kierkegaard. - [A REMARKABLY FINE COPY IN THE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1844. Small 8vo. 164 pp. Completely uncut in the original printed light green wrappers with the text of the title-page repeated inside a frame to front board, printed author and title to spine, and the printing year within the same repeated frame to the back board. An almost untouched copy with just a tiny crease to the front wrapper and a tiny little nick to lower capital at back hinge. A bit of brownspotting due to the quality of the paper. Housed in an elegant green half morocco box with gilt lines and Gothic gilt lettering to spine. Green marbled paper boards and gilt super ex libris to front board (Anker Kysters Eftf. And gilt by Hagel Olsen).‎

Reference : 62257

‎A truly remarkable copy of the first edition, in completely original condition, in the fragile original wrappers, virtually untouched. We have seen copies in the original wrappers before, but never in this state. This is a truly amazing survival. In uncut state, the work is a lot larger than regular copies – more than a cm taller and also significantly wider. By many, Philosophical Fragments is considered Kierkegaard’s actual religious-philosophical main work. It is the first book written under the important pseudonym Johannes Climacus, and it is here that Kierkegaard unfolds the tension between philosophy and religion in an attempt to find a historical onset for eternal consciousness, opposing the ideological thought inherited by Plato, Aristotle and Hegel. Through Climacus, Kierkegaard contrasts the paradoxes of Christianity with Greek and modern philosophical thinking. He begins with Greek Platonic philosophy, exploring the implications of venturing beyond the Socratic understanding of truth acquired through recollection to the Christian experience of acquiring truth through grace. It is in Philosophical Fragments that Kierkegaard’s polemic against the philosophy of Hegel becomes most obvious, portraying clearly for the first time how the salvation of man can only be found through the paradoxical inversion of the rational values of speculative philosophy and through the “leap of faith” in the crucified Christ. It is here that we have the very root of Existentialism. In his preface, Kierkegaard hints at a possible “sequel [to Philosophical Fragments] in 17 pieces” this sequel was published in 1846, namely as the 600 pages long Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments (which is 83 pages long…). Only one single presentation-copy of Philosophical Fragments is known to exist. Himmelstrup: 62.‎