Notes on Wittgenstein's Reading of Kierkegaard

During most of his life Wittgenstein took great interest in Kierkegaard. It could well be that this interest goes back to his youth in Vienna when he donated a sum of money to Theodor Haecker who through his translations and own writings introduced Kierkegaard to an Austrian audience. At any rate his friend Norman Malcolm much later reports that Wittgenstein held Kierkegaard in esteem and referred to him "with something of awe in his expression as a 'really religious' man". According to another friend, O'Drury, he even called Kierkegaard "a saint" and "by far the most profound thinker of the last century". Malcolm also tells us that Wittgenstein had read THE CONCLUDING UNSCIENTIFIC POSTSCRIPT but found it "too deep" for him. But without doubt Wittgenstein had read much more of Kierkegaard's works than the POSTSCRIPT. This can be seen, e.g., in the collection of his notes and aphorisms in CULTURE AND VALUE. In what follows I will concentrate on some of his remarks in this collection. First I want to cite a note from 1937 in which Kierkegaard is explicitly mentioned: