Knowra Søren Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and writer whose pseudonymous works examined individual existence, ethical choice, and Christian faith.
Existentialism : A philosophical tradition focused on individual existence, freedom, responsibility, and the search for meaning. Kierkegaard’s emphasis on singular existence helped shape this later tradition.
Indirect communication : A mode of expression that conveys meaning through implication, irony, or an audience’s own interpretation. Kierkegaard used it to provoke personal reflection instead of delivering doctrine directly.
Copenhagen : The capital of Denmark and the city where Kierkegaard was born, lived, and wrote. Its religious and literary life formed the immediate setting of his career.
Fear and Trembling : Kierkegaard’s 1843 work, written under the name Johannes de silentio, on Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac. It probes whether faith can place an individual in conflict with universal ethical duty.
Karl Jaspers : A German philosopher and psychiatrist whose work explored existence, communication, and limit situations. Jaspers developed existential philosophy in dialogue with Kierkegaard’s account of individual existence.
Subjectivity : The first-person standpoint through which experience, belief, and judgment are lived. He argued that truth relevant to existence depends on how an individual relates to it.
Either/Or : A 1843 work by Kierkegaard presenting aesthetic and ethical ways of life through contrasting voices. Its opposed authors dramatize the choice between immediacy and ethical commitment.
Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard : Søren Kierkegaard’s father, a prosperous merchant whose strict religious outlook deeply affected his son. Kierkegaard’s relationship with his father shaped his reflections on guilt and faith.
The Sickness Unto Death : Kierkegaard’s 1849 work, written under the name Anti-Climacus, on despair and the self before God. It gives his most sustained account of despair as a failure of selfhood.
Martin Heidegger : A German philosopher whose work examined being, existence, and human life as situated in a world. Heidegger reworked themes of anxiety and finite existence associated with Kierkegaard.
Show all 27