person1813–1855

Soren Kierkegaard

Disciplines:

Summary

Danish philosopher — author of Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, and Concluding Unscientific Postscript — who created existentialism's foundational concepts (anxiety, leap of faith, authenticity) and attacked both Hegelian system-building and Danish State Church complacency.

Core Contribution

Creates existentialism — Kierkegaard's concept of the three stages of existence (aesthetic, ethical, religious), his analysis of anxiety as the experience of freedom, and his 'leap of faith' as the basis of authentic religious commitment established the vocabulary of existentialism that Heidegger and Sartre translated into secular philosophy.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Published most of his major works under pseudonyms — Climacus, Anti-Climacus, Victor Eremita, etc. — while also publishing under his own name; the pseudonyms were not to hide authorship but to make the reader engage with the arguments rather than the authority; the most sophisticated use of pseudonymity in philosophy
Broke off his engagement to Regine Olsen in 1841 for reasons he never fully explained and spent the rest of his life writing about her indirectly — Fear and Trembling's Abraham/Isaac as a figure for the obligation that transcends ethical life is generally read as about Regine; his single most significant act (the broken engagement) generated his most important book

Notable Works & Achievements

Either/Or

Fear and Trembling

Repetition

The Concept of Anxiety

Philosophical Fragments

Concluding Unscientific Postscript

The Sickness unto Death

Historical Influences

Hegel Socrates Abraham

Intellectual Lineage

Copenhagen University of Copenhagen Berlin Regine Olsen

Contemporaries & Peers

Hegel Hans Christian Andersen Schelling

Minds Influenced

Existentialism

Intellectual Posterity

Existentialism Anxiety Leap of faith Either/Or Fear and Trembling Pseudonymous authorship

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