Repetition or On Repetition: A Psychological Experiment is a philosophical work by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, published under the pseudonym Constantin Constantius.
The work, through a love story and some reflections on the biblical story of Job , exposes the meaning of repetition, interpreted by many Greek philosophers.
Repetition was written by Kierkegaard in Berlin and Copenhagen two years after the breakup of his engagement to Regine Olsen. The first part of the work is made up of two independent accounts, the account of unhappy love and that of the Danish philosopher and theologian's stay in Berlin. Constantius says that these stories are "both a failed attempt at repetition".
Another part of Kierkegaard's Repetition deals
with the biblical figure of Job. According to some scholars, the ending of this
part was "reworked" after the news that Regine Olsen had married
someone else.
Concept of Rpetition
Kierkegaard explains the title of his work which concerns
the conscious repetition of situations he has already experienced. In his
opinion, repetition «plays a very important role in modern philosophy, since
repetition is a decisive term for what was 'reminiscence' among the Greeks.
Just as they taught that all knowing is a remembering, so the new philosophy
will teach that the whole of life is a repetition". He distinguishes
recollection and repetition. While the object of remembrance is repeated
"backward" and makes one unhappy, the repetition remembers its object
"forward", and if such repetition succeeds, it makes one happy.
Definition of Repetition
Kierkegaard defines repetition as follows: "The
dialectic of repetition is simple: what is repeated in fact has been, otherwise
it could not be repeated; but the very fact that this has been determines the
novelty of the repetition. Saying that all knowing is remembering, the Greeks
said: "the whole present existence has existed". By saying that life
is a repetition, it is said: "the past existence comes to exist now".
Without the category of reminiscence or repetition, the whole of life vanishes in
an empty and insubstantial noise. "
The Unhappy Love
The account of unhappy love in Kierkegaard's Repetition
holds again and again that
"the only happy love is that of memory" that
Constantin Constantius attributes to a writer " who, as far as I know, is
sometimes a bit of a cheat". The story concerns a very handsome young man
who confides to the author that he is in love.
But at one point despite being proud and confident, the
young confidant burst into tears, leaving the narrator confused The
author who had promised to be close to him in those melancholy moments took
him, with his carriage, out of Copenhagen, among the woods and other
landscapes, but there was nothing that could detach him from his deep
melancholy. Kierkegaard concludes that his mistake "was this, to stick
to the end instead of the beginning. But such a mistake is the assured ruin of
a man".
The lover slowly loses his faith in his future marriage
until the author advises him to get rid of the girl without hurting her
honor (like Kierkegaard tried to do with Regina). The young lover approved the
plan but in the end does "not have the strength to carry out the plan
[...] because he would hardly have endured the horrors of the adventure".
The conclusion of this account of unhappy love is, according to Kierkegaard,
this : «My young friend did not understand repetition, did not believe in it and
did not want it strongly. The trouble with his fate was that he really loved
the girl, but to really love her he would first have to get out of the poetic
confusion into which he had fallen".
Journey to Berlin
The second part of Kierkegaard’s Repetition is the journey
to Berlin (a real event from Kierkegaard's life). in this part the philosopher
travels to Berlin "to ascertain how far a repetition was
possible" by retracing a trip he already made. He rather quickly reaches
the conclusion that no repetition is possible: "The only thing to
repeat was the impossibility of a repetition". Angered, the philosopher decides
to return home only to find the his servant did not foresee his early return,
and everything is in disorder.