Review of Dooley, Mark, 'The Politics of Exodus: Kierkegaard's ethics of responsibility' (New York, Fordham University Press, 2001), pp. xxiv + 285, US$40.00 (cloth), US$20.00 (paper)

Abstract

Mark Dooley seeks, in this book, to demonstrate how Kierkegaard's writings are relevant in current ethical and political debate. He does so by drawing out the Kierkegaardian lineage in Derrida's writings, especially as these are mediated by the work of John D. Caputo. Dooley distances his project from both the anti-postmodern strain in Anglo-American Kierkegaard scholarship (Sylvia Walsh and Ronald Hall), and from the postmodern appropriation of Kierkegaard which focuses on 'literary gimmicks' (Mark C. Taylor). Here Dooley is unduly critical of Taylor in an attempt to appease Walsh and Hall, but this does not detract from the substantive theses in his book.