Originally Posted by
Conrad_Jalowski
[U]S?ren Aabye Kierkegaard (English pronunciation: /ˈsɔrən ˈkɪərkəɡɑrd/ or /ˈkɪərkəɡɔr/; Danish: [ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ] ( listen)) (5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and psychologist. Kierkegaard strongly criticised both the Hegelianism of his time and what he saw as the empty formalities of the Danish National Church. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives, focusing on the priority of concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment.[4] His theological work focuses on Christian ethics and the institution of the Church.[5] His psychological works explore the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices.[6] As part of his philosophical method, inspired by Socrates and the Socratic dialogues, Kierkegaard's early work was written under various pseudonymous characters who present their own distinctive viewpoints and interact with each other in complex dialogue.[7] He assigns pseudonyms to explore particular viewpoints in-depth, which may take up several books in some instances, and Kierkegaard, or another pseudonym, critiques that position. Thus, the task of discovering the meaning of his works is left to the reader, because "the task must be made difficult, for only the difficult inspires the noble-hearted".[8] Subsequently, scholars have interpreted Kierkegaard variously as, among others, an existentialist, neo-orthodoxist, postmodernist, humanist, and individualist. Crossing the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, and literature, he is an influential figure in contemporary thought.[9][10][11]
Contents [hide]
1 Life
1.1 Early years (1813–1836)
1.2 Regine Olsen and graduation (1837–1841)
1.3 First authorship and Corsair affair (1841–1846)
1.4 Second authorship (1846–1853)
1.5 Attack upon the Church (1854–1855)
2 Thought
3 Pseudonymous authorship
4 Journals
5 Kierkegaard and Christianity
6 Criticism
7 Influence and reception
8 Veneration
9 Selected bibliography
10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
12.1 Book
12.2 Web
13 External links
[edit]Life
[edit]Early years (1813–1836)
S?ren Kierkegaard was born to an affluent family in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. His mother, Ane S?rensdatter Lund Kierkegaard, had served as a maid in the household before marrying his father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard. She was an unassuming figure: quiet, plain, and not formally educated. She is not directly referred to in Kierkegaard's books, although she affected his later writings. His father was a melancholic, anxious, deeply pious, and fiercely intelligent man.[12]
Based on a biographical interpretation of anecdotes in S?ren's unpublished journals, especially a rough draft to a story called "The Great Earthquake",[13] some early Kierkegaard scholars argued that Michael believed he had earned God's wrath and that none of his children would outlive him. He is said to have believed that his personal sins, perhaps indiscretions like cursing the name of God in his youth or impregnating Ane out of wedlock, necessitated this punishment. Though five of his seven children died before he did, both S?ren and his brother Peter Christian Kierkegaard, outlived him.[12] Peter, who was seven years S?ren's elder, later became bishop in Aalborg.[12]
This early introduction to the notion of sin and its connection from father and son is said by early biographers to have laid the foundation for much of Kierkegaard's work.[14] Despite his father's occasional religious melancholy, Kierkegaard and his father shared a close bond. Kierkegaard is often said to have learned to explore the realm of his imagination through a series of exercises and games they played together, though this particular aspect of the relationship is described only by a pseudonym, in an unpublished draft to a book entitled Johannes Climacus, or de omnibus dubitandum est.[15]
Kierkegaard attended the School of Civic Virtue, where he studied Latin and history, among other subjects. In 1830, he went on to study theology at the University of Copenhagen, but while there he was drawn more towards philosophy and literature.[16]
Kierkegaard's mother died on 31 July 1834, age 66. One of the first physical descriptions of Kierkegaard comes from an attendee, Hans Br?chner, at his brother Peter's wedding party in 1836: "I found [his appearance] almost comical. He was then twenty-three years old; he had something quite irregular in his entire form and had a strange coiffure. His hair rose almost six inches above his forehead into a tousled crest that gave him a strange, bewildered look."[17]
[edit]Regine Olsen and graduation (1837–1841)
Main article: Regine Olsen
Regine Olsen, a muse for Kierkegaard's writings
An important aspect of Kierkegaard's life, one generally considered to have had a major influence on his work, was his broken engagement to Regine Olsen (1822–1904). Kierkegaard and Olsen met on 8 May 1837 and were instantly attracted to each other. In his journals, Kierkegaard wrote about his love for her: "Thou sovereign of my heart treasured in the deepest fastness of my chest, in the fullness of my thought, there [...] unknown divinity! Oh, can I really believe the poet's tales, that when one first sees the object of one's love, one imagines one has seen her long ago, that all love like all knowledge is remembrance, that love too has its prophecies in the individual."[18]
Kierkegaard's father died on 9 August 1838, age 82. Before his death, he is said to have asked S?ren to finish his education in theology. S?ren was deeply influenced by his father's religious experience and wanted to fulfill his wish. On 11 August, Kierkegaard wrote:
My father died on Wednesday.[19] I had so very much wished that he might live a few years longer, and I look upon his death as the last sacrifice which he made to his love for me; [...] he died for me in order that, if possible, I might still turn into something. Of all that I have inherited from him, the recollection of him, his transfigured portrait [...] is dearest to me, and I will be careful to preserve [his memory] safely hidden from the world.[20]
—S?ren Kierkegaard, Journals, p. 62, 11 August 1838
On 8 September 1840, Kierkegaard formally proposed to Olsen. However, Kierkegaard soon felt disillusioned about the prospects of the marriage. He broke off the engagement on 11 August 1841, though it is generally believed that the two were deeply in love. In his journals, Kierkegaard mentions his belief that his "melancholy" made him unsuitable for marriage, but his precise motive for ending the engagement remains unclear.[12][21]
Also in 1841, Kierkegaard wrote and defended his dissertation, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, which was found by the university panel to be a noteworthy and well-thought out work, but too informal and witty for a serious academic thesis.[22] He graduated from university on 20 October 1841 with a Magister Artium, which today would be designated a Ph.D. With his family's inheritance of approximately 31,000 rigsdaler, Kierkegaard was able to fund his education, his living, and several publications of his early works.[23]
[edit]First authorship and Corsair affair (1841–1846)
Kierkegaard in a coffee-house, an oil sketch by Christian Olavius, 1843
Although Kierkegaard wrote a few articles on politics, women, and entertainment in his youth and university days, many scholars, such as Alastair Hannay and Edward Mooney, believe Kierkegaard's first noteworthy work is either his university thesis, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, which was presented in 1841, or his masterpiece and arguably greatest work, Either/Or, which was published in 1843.[21][24] Both works treated major figures in Western thought (Socrates in the former and, less directly, Hegel and Friedrich von Schlegel in the latter), and showcased Kierkegaard's unique style of writing. Either/Or was mostly written during Kierkegaard's stay in Berlin and was completed in the autumn of 1842.[24]
In the same year Either/Or was published, Kierkegaard found out Regine Olsen was engaged to be married to Johan Frederik Schlegel (1817–1896), a civil servant. This fact affected Kierkegaard and his subsequent writings deeply. In Fear and Trembling, a discourse on the nature of faith published in late 1843, one can interpret a section in the work as saying, "Kierkegaard hopes that through a divine act, Regine would return to him."[25] Repetition, published on the very same day as Fear and Trembling, is an exploration of love, religious experience and language reflected in a series of stories about a young gentleman leaving his beloved. Several other works in this period make similar overtones of the Kierkegaard–Olsen relationship.[25]
Other major works in this period include critiques of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and form a basis for existential psychology. Philosophical Fragments, The Concept of Anxiety, and Stages on Life's Way include observations about existential choices and their consequences, and what religious life can mean for a modern individual. Perhaps the most valiant attack on Hegelianism is the Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments which discusses the importance of the individual, subjectivity as truth, and countering the Hegelian claim that "The Rational is the Real and the Real is the Rational".[26]
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