George Pattison provides a bold and innovative reassessment of Kierkegaard's Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses and our reading of his work as a whole. The first full length assessment of the discourses in English, this volume will be essential reading for philosophers and theologians, and anyone interested in Kierkegaard and the history of philosophy. Of all Kierkegaard's writings, none are as neglected and few as contentious as the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses . Often assumed to shed light only on the religious or dialectical elements of Kierkegaard's thought, George Pattison argues that they tell us much more about the scope of Kierkegaard's thought than is generally acknowledged. George Pattison makes three controversial claims: that the diversity of Kierkegaard's work belies its underlying unity; that the upbuilding discourses provide the best vantage point from which to see this unity; and that we can understand Kierkegaard without going beyond the general possibilities of human experience and reflection. George Pattison examines the use of language and rhetoric in the discourses and argues that their guiding ideas are regulative principles and maxims that bring Kierkegaard closer to Kant's philosophy. Furthermore, he shows that this approach to the discourses brings them much closer to Kierkegaard's own view of them as 'Socratic' in character, to be understood as much for their philosophical as religious nature.