This volume contains a new translation, with a historical
introduction by the translators, of two works written under the
pseudonym Johannes Climacus. Through Climacus, Kierkegaard
contrasts the paradoxes of Christianity with Greek and modern
philosophical thinking. In "Philosophical Fragments" 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. Published in 1844 and not originally
planned to appear under the pseudonym Climacus, the book varies
in tone and substance from the other works so attributed, but it
is dialectically related to them, as well as to the other
pseudonymous writings. The central issue of "Johannes Climacus"
is doubt. Probably written between November 1842 and April 1843
but unfinished and published only posthumously, this book was
described by Kierkegaard as an attack on modern speculative
philosophy by "means of the melanchol