Kierkegaard and Nietzsche provided the basic foundations of 19th century Existentialism. It is a philosophy that emphasises the existence of the individual as a free and responsible agent determining their own development. We all suffer and enjoy the same condition, the human condition, and have done so since time immemorial. Kierkegaard is commonly regarded asContinue reading “Kierkegaard and Nietzsche ā Giants of Existentialism”
Tag Archives: kierkegaard
Book Review: The Sickness unto Death – Kierkegaard
SĆøren Kierkegaard wrote one of the most remarkable theistic existentialist works of the 19th century, The Sickness unto Death is famed for the depth and acuity of its psychological insights. Writing under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus, Kierkegaard explores the concept of ādespairā. Despair is a deeper expression for anxiety which is a not-wanting-to-be-oneself. It is aContinue reading “Book Review: The Sickness unto Death – Kierkegaard”
The Absurd ā Camus, Kierkegaard & Dostoevsky | Existentialism
Albert Camusā views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as Absurdism, he defines the Absurd āas the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life, and the human inability to find any meaning in a purposeless, meaningless, and irrational universe, with the āunreasonable silenceā of the universe inContinue reading “The Absurd ā Camus, Kierkegaard & Dostoevsky | Existentialism”
The Ultimate Truth: Subjectivity – Kierkegaard
The world is absurd, and we must live in it. āAs I grew up, I opened my eyes and saw the real world, I began to laugh and I havenāt stopped sinceā. – SĆøren Kierkegaard One can try making sense of life by laying a worldview or template on it, but Kierkegaard would guarantee you thatContinue reading “The Ultimate Truth: Subjectivity – Kierkegaard”
The Sickness Unto Death: Angst & Despair – Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard spends most of his writing talking about concepts such as anxiety or angst and despair. The Sickness Unto Death is a life changing book about the despair of not being oneās true self and also quite short at around a few hundred pages long, depending on the version. One of his famous quotes isContinue reading “The Sickness Unto Death: Angst & Despair – Kierkegaard”
Fear and Trembling: The Religious and the Ethical – Kierkegaard
Fear and Trembling is a thrilling and enthralling book as well as a great introduction to Kierkegaard, it is also relatively short at around 200 pages (Either/Or and Stages on Life’s Way are around 800 pages long!) To recap the previous posts on Kierkegaard, we know that he presents three stages on life’s way: theContinue reading “Fear and Trembling: The Religious and the Ethical – Kierkegaard”
Stages on Lifeās Way: The Religious – Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard’s second book Stages on Lifeās Way was written as a continuation of his masterpiece Either/Or where he introduced the Aesthetic and the Ethical stages. In Stages on Life’s Way, Kierkegaard introduces a third stage: the Religious. Kierkegaard was a Christian, but if you compared him to every other Christian youāve ever met, heās aContinue reading “Stages on Lifeās Way: The Religious – Kierkegaard”
Either/Or: The Aesthetic and the Ethical – Kierkegaard
In his first published book Either/Or, Kierkegaard portrays two life views: the aesthetic and the ethical. Kierkegaard wants you to think about them as individual existences. In other words, at any given time, youāre always going to be in one of these existences, an individual is either aesthetic or ethical, even though they might overlap.Continue reading “Either/Or: The Aesthetic and the Ethical – Kierkegaard”
An Introduction to SĆøren Kierkegaard
SĆøren Kierkegaard was a profound and prolific 19th century writer and philosopher in the Danish Golden Age of intellectual and artistic activity. Although he would argue that he wasnāt a philosopher since all he did was write about life, how we choose to live and what it means to be alive, centred in the individualContinue reading “An Introduction to SĆøren Kierkegaard”