Kierkegaard

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and literary critic whose work helped shape modern existentialism. Born in Copenhagen and educated at the University of Copenhagen, he challenged both Hegelian philosophy and the complacencies of the Danish state church. Much of his writing appeared anonymously or under pseudonyms, using varied voices and genres to probe how individuals relate to faith, ethics, and meaning.

Kierkegaard’s central concern was the self before God. He argued that truth is found in subjective, lived experience rather than in impersonal systems. He outlined three modes of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. In the aesthetic, life seeks momentary pleasure; in the ethical, it pursues duty and accomplishment; in the religious, it requires a personal, paradoxical leap of faith. Despair and anxiety arise when the self confronts its limitations, and the leap of faith is essential for entering a genuine relationship with the divine, often described through the figure of the knight of faith in Fear and Trembling.

Key works include Either/Or (1843), Fear and Trembling (1843), The Concept of Anxiety (1844), The Sickness Unto Death (1849), and the Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments (1846–47), among others. Kierkegaard also emphasized indirect communication, using pseudonyms to expose competing viewpoints without endorsing a single authorial stance. His thought influenced later existentialism, phenomenology, and theology, shaping debates about faith, freedom, and the nature of truth.