‎"KIERKEGAARD, SØREN.‎
‎Begrebet Angest. En simpel psychologisk=paapegende Overveielse i Retning af det dogmatiske Problem om Arvesynden. Af Vigilius Hafniensis. - [INTRODUCING ""ANGST"" IN PHILOSOPHY - A WONDERFUL COPY OF THE NOTORIOUSLY SCARCE FIRST EDITION]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1844. 8vo. (8), 184 pp. Lovely contemporary brown half calf with richly gilt spine. Light wear to hinges, capitals, and corners, but overall very nice. First leaves with a bit of brownspotting, but also internally unusually nice.‎

Reference : 62260

‎An absolutely lovely copy in contemporary binding of this notoriously rare first edition. It is this classic of Existentialism that introduced the notion of “Angst” (anxiety) in philosophy. If Kierkegaard had written nothing else, The Concept of Anxiety alone would have cemented him as one of the most important thinkers since antiquity. Nowhere else can one find an account of the concept of anxiety that comes close in importance to the one Kierkegaard gives in the present work. Using the Fall in the Garden of Eden as the foundation of the analysis, he succeeds in describing what no-one has been able to before or since. “Long before modern psychology had entered puberty, Kierkegaard unfurled advanced psychological concepts that in many senses were Freudian before Freud was around. In his primary psychological work, The Concept of Anxiety, he presents his detailed analyses of the relationship of anxiety to phenomena such as freedom, sexuality, original sin, and history.” (The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre). Being one of his most important and influential philosophical works, The Concept of Anxiety is essential to all later existentialist writers. It was arguably this work that more than any other influenced Existentialism. The work bears a printed dedication to his beloved Poul Martin Møller, one of the most beautiful and moving dedications in a philosophical work. Poul Martin Møller was his philosophy professor, but more than that he was a moral mentor and one of a few people that Kierkegaard truly admired and cared for. Poul Martin Møller died in 1838, leaving almost no published works behind" he is the only person outside of Kierkegaard’s immediate family (here including Regine), who had been honoured with a printed dedication in any of his books. Apart from the title Sixteen Upbuilding Discourses (the amputated Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses – without the two that were quickly sold out), The Concept of Anxiety is by far the scarcest of Kierkegaard’s works – “The Concept of Anxiety was only printed in 250 copies!” (Textspejle, p. 58, translated from Danish), which is ca half of most of the other works. It is, interestingly, the only one of the pseudonymous writings from the period that was reprinted, despite the poor sales numbers of the first issue. In the summer of 1847, when Reitzel buys the remainders of the first issue, a mere 165 copies of what is arguably now considered Kierkegaard’s most important work had been sold. The Concept of Anxiety is not only notorious for its pivotal importance in the history of philosophy and for essentially being the theoretical foundation of Existentialism among Kierkegaard collectors and bibliophiles in general, it is also notorious for its scarcity, having been printed in a mere ca 250 copies. Furthermore, like Fear and Trembling, not a single presentation-copy of the work is known to exist. Himmelstrup 62.‎