Kierkegaard
Modern philosophyThe author of the celebrated Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments was a Danish thinker whose thought is strikingly original and resists any attempt at systematisation.
He has been regarded as one of the pioneers of existentialism; what is certain is that he inspired many key figures of that movement, including Sartre.
Here is an overview of his life and works...
Kierkegaard's Works Summarised on This Site
Either/Or
It is in this first work that Kierkegaard presents his famous distinction of the different stages of the mind, opposing the aesthetic and ethical stages.
Fear and Trembling
Kierkegaard here presents the third stage, the religious stage, through an analysis of the phenomenon of faith based on the story of Abraham.
Philosophical Fragments
How can truth be taught? Here Kierkegaard contrasts the figure of Christ with that of Socrates, to deduce the specific Christian conception of time.
Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments
A fierce critique of Hegelian philosophy, in order to defend a way of thinking centred around the notion of existence.
Bibliography
Here are the essential books if you want to better understand this author's thought:
Dooley, Mark (2001). The Politics of Exodus: Kierkegaard's Ethics of Responsibility. New York: Fordham University Press.
Carlisle, Claire (2006). Kierkegaard: a guide for the perplexed. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Lippitt, John (2003). Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling. London: Routledge.
Lowrie, Walter (1968). Kierkegaard's Attack Upon Christendom. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Caputo, John D. (2008). How to Read Kierkegaard. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Recommended Videos
Conferences, symposia, radio broadcasts... here are 10 videos that will help you better understand Søren Kierkegaard's thought.
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Biography: Life of Kierkegaard
Youth
Søren Kierkegaard was born in 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark, into a prosperous middle-class family who gave him a strict religious upbringing.
His childhood was overshadowed by repeated bereavements — the deaths of his mother and five of his siblings — and he carried a melancholy temperament throughout his life as a result.
At eighteen, he enrolled at the University of Copenhagen to study theology.
By the time he was twenty-five, following the death of his father, only he and one brother remained of his original family.
A Decisive Turning Point
In 1837, he fell in love with Regine Olsen and began to contemplate marriage.
Three years later, in 1840, his life took a decisive turn. He finally resolved to break off the engagement — a painful rupture that left a deep mark on him.
That same year, he also defended his thesis On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates.
He then went to Berlin to further his philosophical education under Schelling at the university there. Disappointed by what he found, he returned to Denmark and began writing his own works, living off his inheritance and having chosen a life of celibacy.
A Prolific Author
His first work, Either/Or, appeared in 1843 — the beginning of a long series, notable titles from which include the Philosophical Fragments and their Concluding Unscientific Postscript, The Seducer's Diary, The Concept of Anxiety, and many more.
These works are widely regarded as the earliest expression of existentialism — a philosophical movement that places human existence at the centre of reflection.
He published his books under numerous pseudonyms, among them Victor Eremita and Johannes Climacus, in order to prevent his work from being read as a unified and coherent system.
The Religious Turn
Towards the end of his life, Kierkegaard launched a radical attack on the Danish Church in the name of an authentic Christianity.
He wrote pamphlets that caused controversy throughout Denmark, denouncing state Christianity in increasingly vehement terms — going so far as to describe pastors as "cannibals".
Exhausted and impoverished, he faced hostility from his contemporaries and from the institutions he had attacked. It was at this point that he collapsed in the street during a walk, and eventually died in hospital in Copenhagen in 1855, at the age of forty-two.
He exerted a profound influence on Heidegger, Sartre and other figures of existentialism, even if his thought has at times been misread.
Main Works
On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates
Either/Or
The Concept of Anxiety
Repetition
Philosophical Fragments
Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments