Søren Kierkegaard Essays

Soren Kierkegaard was a 19th century Dutch philosopher and theologian. Born in Copenhagen in 1813, he only lived to be forty two. He wrote extensively over man and varied literary genres and was a strong critic of Hegel. He was consumed with the idea of what it meant to be a Christian, and is credited with being of the first writers to put forward the ideas which would become Existentialism. For Kierkegaard, God comes as man in Christ as a person would in a disguise. As such, when Jesus is incarnate

piece, Either/Or, Soren Kierkegaard portrays two ways of life; the aesthetic and the ethical. Either/Or is more like a novel than a philosophical treatise. He aims to answer the question “How should we live”? like many other philosophers. The two different ways of life he portrays are portrayed through fictional characters, A and B. We are never told the identity of A, but B is a judge named Wilhelm. The central theme is the difference between appearances and reality. Kierkegaard says “the inner is

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a “Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic and religious author” (Soren Kierkegaard, n.d., n.p.). Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a “French philosopher, playwright, novelist, political activist, biographer, and literary critic” (Jean-Paul Sartre, n.d., n.p.). Despite living in different centuries and having different religious beliefs, they were both considered to be existentialist philosophers. In this paper, I will define existentialism, as well

Soren Kierkegaard once wrote in a book called Either/Or Part II that, “Someone can conquer kingdoms and countries without being a hero; someone else can prove himself a hero by controlling his temper. Someone can display courage by doing the out-of-the-ordinary, another by doing the ordinary….” In other words, heroes can be anyone by what little they do to what big they do for society (wikiquotes).Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish existentialist philosopher, and religious author. Soren Kierkegaard

the religion, in which I sought out religious texts and scholars known to have influenced the tradition. I count many of these writers and theologians as formative in my journey, but none more so than Soren Kierkegaard. As a teenager I was drawn to the transformative nature of Christianity. Kierkegaard writes about the three ways of life one may live: an aesthetic life, an ethical life, or a Christian life. It was the distinction between the last two categories that captivated me. To be a Christian

Soren Kierkegaard speaks of a species of despair by which the man is ignorant of the reality of who he is, and is ignorant of the fact that he is in despair. The need for self consciousness is a theme in Kierkegaard that is key to understanding his concept of despair. Without this self awareness there is a severe lack of the self, which leads to a despair that one might not even recognize as such. We can see this practically expressed in the life of Solzhenitsyn, as he expresses it, prior to

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) is counted among the most influential thinkers of history. The Kierkegaard 's thought can be associated with three noteworthy periods of history of ideas: in the first place, he lived a period of creative production in Denmark called Danish Golden Age and was a man of his times in his critical reflection of his own Danish culture. He built a penetrating analyse of the remarkable episodes and intellectual tradition inherited by his generation in the 19th century. Next,

where he makes an argument that the possibility of an absolute duty to God is real, however it is not attainable to the average man as we will later discuss. Søren Kierkegaard also brings into light the role of the universal ethical if one is to solely bestow themselves to God and faith, (one should note that the definition that Kierkegaard uses to describe ‘faith’ is very much different to usual definition of faith). The reasons behind Kierkegaard’s apparent religious devotion in Fear and Trembling

We have studied over twenty authors, but some of my favorites include Thomas More, Immanuel Kant, and Soren Kierkegaard. In 1516, Thomas More wrote Utopia. In 1785, Immanuel Kant published, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals. In 1843, Soren Aabye Kierkegaard published, Fear and Trembling. All three authors are very different in their backgrounds and views. They all have differing opinions on what their ideal world would consist of. In Utopia, Thomas More describes his own personal

Soren Kierkegaard and Karl Barth, contributors to existentialism and neo-orthodoxy, stand as two of the most significant figures in philosophy and theology respectively. They share similar beliefs, and in many ways, Kierkegaard had an influence on Barth. Yet, this relationship is not as simple as it first appears because Barth criticized some of Kierkegaard’s views later in his life. We will compare and contrast the difficult question of how Kierkegaard and Barth were similar and unlike throughout

Soren Kierkegaard, a German philosopher, throughout the 1800’s developed concepts defending the sovereignty of the individual (Basic Writings of Existentialism: Gordon Marino, p. 4). Gordon continues by explaining that, much of Kierkegaard’s work contains a primary focus on what it means to have faith. Published in 1843, “Fear and Trembling”, written by S. Kierkegaard is often described as an analysis of the oversimplification of Christianity. Within the text which is divided into three parts Problema

The aim of this essay is to examine Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s paradoxical notion of the ‘leap of faith’ as it famously appears in Fear and Trembling. In doing so, it will be necessary to first give a brief exposition of the philosophical background, specifically the Hegelian dialectic, to provide a substance in which Kierkegaard’s views can be contrasted. Then I will focus on the characters of the Young Swain, Abraham, and the Tax Collector to illustrate the (a) the difference between

The thoughts of passion and decision are very important points for Kierkegaard and his Philosophy that comes to be known as existentialism.  Kierkegaard is generally recognized today as the father of existentialism. He thought of his self as a religious author. “To think is one thing, to exist is another”. Said Kierkegaard (palmer page 258). Our lived existence is associated to passion, decision, and action. None of which can be exhausted by any thought.  He believes that an existence can only be

Parthiv Patel Perspectives Professor Atanassova April 29, 2014 Faith Rooted in Fear In Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard investigates faith and its moral and ethical implications as well as its broader applications through a couple stories and parables. To demonstrate boundless submission towards God and show how human fear and passion is crucial in order to accept Him, Kierkegaard uses the biblical parable of Abraham and his son Isaac. He also expands on the definition of faith through the

In Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard delves into the paradoxical topic of faith and how it surpasses the ethical. Within the section entitled “Problem 1”, he proposes that Abraham, who rises above the universal, cannot be considered a hero and is instead simply a knight of faith. In this précis, I will re-construct Kierkegaard’s argument about Abraham and faith. In the beginning of “Problem 1”, Kierkegaard discusses the idea that everyone’s ultimate goal, or telos, is to reach the universal

“The biggest danger,” wrote the 19th century Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, “that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. is bound to be noticed.” (The Sickness Unto Death) As a philosopher Kierkegaard was extremely interested with ideas such as freedom, anxiety, despair, and what it means to live as a genuine human being. His thoughts on these topics were of great interest to the 20th century

“The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do; the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die” (Kierkegaard). Kierkegaard was a clear supporter of expressing our own personality. He wanted human beings to be able to exercise their freedom. He believed human beings should not postpone their choices simply because they don’t know the universal truth. He claimed truth is subjective, therefore we shouldn’t postpone our choices

Jean-Paul Sartre and Soren Kierkegaard are two widely known existentialists who agree on many of the main principles of existentialism, but also disagree on several of the finer details. For example, they both agree that what matters most is action. What a person actually does is what defines the person, and the process of defining one’s self never ceases. By comparing and contrasting how they portray the emotion of anguish - specifically, in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and Sartre’s The Humanism

Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre are considered some of the most central figures in the existentialist philosophical movement. These three philosophers have shaped their existentialist attitudes through their sense of uncertainty and puzzlement in the seemingly meaningless and absurd universe in which we all live in. They believe that human beings are much more than they perceive themselves to be in the sense that they are not only existent creatures, but also creatures

As a person who doesn’t believe in any inherent meaning of the universe, it was enlightening to indulge in the details of existentialism and explore the niched philosophical notions surrounding the previously-perplexing concept of “existence preceding essence”. Upon review of existentialism, there’s a certain sense of comfort in the unpredictability, freedom, and naturally unfolding scheme of the cosmos that was historically a crucial turning point in how the world’s population perceived the universe