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Søren Kierkegaard
Father of existentialism — truth is subjectivity, and faith is a leap.
Overview
A Danish thinker widely regarded as the father of existentialism, Kierkegaard rebelled against Hegel's abstract system and the complacency of the established Church to focus on the concrete, striving individual. He explored anxiety, despair, and the stages of life — aesthetic, ethical, and religious — and argued that the deepest truths are grasped not by objective reasoning but by passionate inward commitment, above all in the 'leap of faith'.
What they supported — and why
Truth is subjectivity
SupportedFor the most important matters — how to live, and faith — truth is not detached objective knowledge but passionate, inward appropriation by the individual.
WhyOne can know all the doctrines objectively and still not live them; what matters existentially is the intensity and commitment of one's own relation to the truth.
The stages of existence
SupportedLife can be lived on an aesthetic plane (pleasure, immediacy), an ethical plane (duty, commitment), or a religious plane (faith before God).
WhyEach stage confronts its own despair, and the movement upward is a matter of decisive personal choice, not logical deduction.
The leap of faith
SupportedFaith is not a conclusion of reason but a passionate leap that embraces paradox — as Abraham, willing to sacrifice Isaac, transcends the ethical.
WhyThe infinite God cannot be reached by finite reasoning, so genuine faith requires a risk-laden commitment beyond rational proof.
Causes championed
- The primacy of the individual
- Authentic faith over dead doctrine
- Honest confrontation with anxiety and despair
Issues wrestled with
- How should the single individual live?
- What is faith?
- What are anxiety and despair?
Hurdles faced
- A broken engagement that haunted his work
- Public ridicule and a lonely, embattled life; attacks on the Danish Church
Works & books
2 catalogued. Status shows how much survives to today.
Fear and Trembling
SurvivesOn Abraham, faith, and the 'teleological suspension of the ethical'.
Either/Or; The Sickness unto Death; Concluding Unscientific Postscript
SurvivesOn the stages of life, despair, and subjective truth.
Read the texts free
1 of Søren Kierkegaard’s works are free to read in full — public-domain English editions on Project Gutenberg, matched from Gutenberg’s own catalogue.
Every edition online — Open Library catalogues 1,085 works & editions, 29 of them free to read in full.
The influence network
See Søren Kierkegaard in the map →In their words
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
— journals
Legacy
He turned philosophy toward the existing individual, anxiety, and decision — founding existentialism and reshaping modern theology.
Further reading
Cross-checked against these authoritative references.