The Danish theologian-philosopher K. E. Løgstrup is second in reputation in his homeland only to Søren Kierkegaard. He is best known outside Europe for his The Ethical Demand, first published in Danish in 1956 and published in an expanded English translation in 1997. Beyond the Ethical Demand contains excerpts, translated into English for the first time, from the numerous books and essays Løgstrup continued to write throughout his life. In the first essay, he engages the critical response to The Ethical Demand, clarifying, elaborating, or defending his original positions. In the next three essays, he extends his contention that human ethics “demands” that we are concerned for the other by introducing the crucial concept of “sovereign expressions of life.” Like Levinas, Løgstrup saw in the phenomenon of “the other” the ground for his ethics. In his later works he developed this concept of “the sovereign expressions of life,” spontaneous phenomena such as trust, mercy, and sincerity that are inherently other-regarding. The last two essays connect his ethics with political life.

Beyond the Ethical Demand

Politics & Social Sciences

Løgstrup, Knud Ejler

Philosophy

University of Notre Dame Press

The Danish theologian-philosopher K. E. Løgstrup is second in reputation in his homeland only to Søren Kierkegaard. He is best known outside Europe for his The Ethical Demand, first published in Danish in 1956 and published in an expanded English translation in 1997. Beyond the Ethical Demand contains excerpts, translated into English for the first time, from the numerous books and essays Løgstrup continued to write throughout his life. In the first essay, he engages the critical response to The Ethical Demand, clarifying, elaborating, or defending his original positions. In the next three essays, he extends his contention that human ethics "demands" that we are concerned for the other by introducing the crucial concept of "sovereign expressions of life." Like Levinas, Løgstrup saw in the phenomenon of "the other" the ground for his ethics. In his later works he developed this concept of "the sovereign expressions of life," spontaneous phenomena such as trust, mercy, and sincerity that are inherently other-regarding. The last two essays connect his ethics with political life. Interest in Løgstrup in the English-speaking academic community continues to grow, and these important original sources will be essential tools for scholars exploring the further implications of his ethics and phenomenology.

The Ethical Demand (Revisions: A Series of Books on Ethics)

Translated by Dr. Russell Dees. Commissioned by Aarhus University, Denmark. A two volume translation of the major work of the most important Danish philosopher since Kierkegaard.  At the time of his death in 1981, K. E. Løgstrup was in the process of completing his four volume treatise entitled Metafysik. As his recent biographer Hans Hauge put it, this work was Løgstrups summa theologica, the culmination of a lifetime of reading and thinking. Løgstrup published two volumes of this work during his lifetime. The remaining two volumes were edited and published posthumously in 1983 and 1984, respectively, by his widow and several colleagues: Rosemarie Løgstrup, Svend Andersen, Karstein Hansen, Ole Jensen and Viggo Mortensen. The group has edited and published two additional volumes of K. E. Løgstrups papers. This translation was commissioned by the University of Aarhus, where Løgstrup was professor of theology from 1943 to 1975, and consists of excerpts from all but one of these works. Danes consider Knud Ejler Løgstrup to be the greatest philosophical/theological thinker their nation has produced since Søren Kierkegaard strolled the cobbled streets of Copenhagen. Like Kierkegaard, Løgstrup has the reputation of being a difficult and strong-willed thinker. On the occasion of the thirteenth printing of Løgstrups most widely known work, The Ethical Demand (1956), Poul Erik Tøjner described him in the following way:  K. E. Løgstrup was an obstinate, headstrong thinker. He thought his own way, one could say. He said much. Often, he said the exact opposite of what the epoch accepted as stock, self-evident truths. If Kierkegaard and hundreds of theologians after him said that Christ lived the most paradoxical life that had ever been lived, Løgstrup said that he had lived the only nonparadoxical life on earth. Løgstrups influence on Danish spiritual life has been colossal. That his ideas have become so widespread is a tribute not only to his authorship but to just as high a degree to the number of people from a wide variety of disciplines who have felt attracted or repelled by Løgstrupian considerations. Løgstrup is recalled as a charismatic figure, one who did not shy away from controversy and who not infrequently expressed his ideas with great eloquence. From the Translators Foreword

Metaphysics (Volume I) Paperback (Marquette Studies in Philosophy, Vol 4, 8)

Marquette Univ Pr

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Books by Løgstrup, Knud Ejler

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Løgstrup, Knud Ejler. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Beyond the Ethical Demand

Beyond the Ethical Demand

The Ethical Demand (Revisions: A Series of Books on Ethics)

Metaphysics (Volume I) Paperback (Marquette Studies in Philosophy, Vol 4, 8)