Kierkegaard
Modern philosophyThe author of the famous Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments is a Danish thinker who delivers original thought, which cannot be systematised.
He has been seen as one of the pioneers of existentialism; what is certain is that he inspired many figures of this doctrine, such as 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 well-to-do middle-class family who provided him with a strict religious upbringing.
His childhood was marked by the many deaths in his family, those of his mother and five brothers and sisters: he was to retain a melancholy temperament as a result.
At the age of 18, he enrolled at the University of Copenhagen to study theology.
At 25, following the death of his father, only he and one of his brothers remained from his original family.
A decisive turning point
In 1837, he fell in love with Regine Olsen, and considered marriage.
Three years later, in 1840, his life took a turn; it was an eventful year.
First, he finally decided to break off his engagement. The break-up was painful and had a profound effect on him.
It was also the year in which he defended his thesis On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates.
Afterwards, he decided to further his philosophical education by studying under Schelling at the University of Berlin. Disappointed, he returned to Denmark, and began writing his own works, living off his inheritance, and having chosen celibacy.
A prolific author
It was in 1843 that his first work Either/Or appeared. This was only the beginning of a long series, from which we can retain in particular the Philosophical Fragments and their Concluding Unscientific Postscript, The Seducer's Diary, The Concept of Anxiety, and more.
These works are regarded as representing the first form of existentialism, a philosophical movement that places existence, considered as a human specificity, at the center of reflection.
He wrote his books under numerous pseudonyms, such as Victor Eremita or Johannes Climacus, in order to prevent his work from being seen as an ordered and coherent system.
The religious turn
Towards the end of his life, Kierkegaard engaged in a radical denunciation of the Danish Church, in the name of an authentic Christianity.
He wrote pamphlets that stirred controversy throughout Denmark. He denounced state Christianity, in increasingly exaggerated accents, even going so far as to call pastors "anthropophagi".
Exhausted and impoverished, he faced hostility from his contemporaries and institutions. It was at this point that, during a walk, he collapsed, and eventually died in the hospital in Copenhagen, aged 42, in 1855.
He exerted a profound influence on Heidegger, Sartre and other figures of existentialism, even if his thought has sometimes been misinterpreted.
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