Philosophy's paralipomena: Diaries, notebooks, and letters

This article considers the role of diaries, notebooks, letters, and, in general, what we assume to be personal, peripheral, and disposable autobiographical texts as indispensable to the very production of philosophy and the development of a literary style that will become the philosophical physiognomy of a philosopher's distinct thinking. This is argued by looking at the works of Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Sloterdijk, with the help of Arthur Schopenhauer and Amélie Oksenberg Rorty.