Søren Kierkegaard
(1813 - 1855)
Kierkegaard is a Danish philosopher who lived from May 5, 1813 to November 11, 1855. He is sometimes called the “father” of existentialism. He is also a forerunner of psychoanalysis, because his writings, which are focused on the individual subject, represent an intersection between psychology, philosophy, and religion. He analyses complex feelings like fear and dread, and examines them in relation to existential and religious choices.
Biography:
Kierkegaard's life was short and not very eventful; he barely left Copenhagen, and only spend a year in Berlin to study with Schelling. He was a vocal critic of Hegel.
He was crippled in both his appearance and in his emotional development. He struggled with an oppressive sense of guilt and inadequacy. He despised bourgeois complacency and the whole of "the present age."
"What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die."
Basic Ideas
On Becoming a Christian:
Christianity is a commitment, not something to which one passively adheres.
Christianity is a paradox, but this paradox demands passionate faith.
Against Hegel: The real is rational, the rational is real.
Subjective Truth:
Questions concerning God and religion are not objective questions.
Subjectivity is, first of all, inwardness and passion.
It is a commitment, not a mere discovery or "correctness.”
Personal choice is the key to subjectivity, "taking hold"of one's life.
You can love someone with all your heart without it being evident to anyone else.
Most of what he says could be translated to virtually any other religion.
Existential Dialectic
An "existential dialectic" has no ultimate purpose, no rational direction, only various choices, ''modi of existence" that should be approached subjectively. Kierkegaard distinguishes three modes: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
from desire I rush to satisfaction; from satisfaction I leap to desire.
Reason is universal in the realm of ethics, but not outside it.
To choose the ethical life is to choose to live rationally. but one does not rationally choose the ethical life.
Tension between ethical and religious life: Abraham.
Quotes
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
“I have just now come from a party where I was its life and soul; witticisms streamed from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me. But I went away — yes, the dash should be as long as the radius of the earth’s orbit ——————————— and wanted to shoot myself.”
“Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle”
“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”
“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but He does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.”
“Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth — look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.”
“My standpoint is armed neutrality.”
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
“Without risk, faith is an impossibility.”
“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that’s just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it’s a joke.”
“The truth is a trap: you cannot get it without it getting you; you cannot get the truth by capturing it, only by its capturing you.”
“What the age needs is not a genius — it has had geniuses enough, but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening. And therefore someday, not only my writings but my whole life, all the intriguing mystery of the machine will be studied and studied. I never forget how God helps me, and it is therefore my last wish that everything may be to his honor.”
Timeline of his Life
1813
May 5 Søren Kierkegaard born in his father’s house on the Nytorv [New Square] in Copenhagen.
1821
Søren Kierkegaard starts at Borgerdydskolen [School of Civic Virtue].
1823
January 23 Regine Olsen born.
1830
October 30 Søren Kierkegaard enrolls as a theology student at the University.
1834
July 31 Søren Kierkegaard’s mother dies.
1838
August 9 Søren Kierkegaard’s father dies.
September 7 From the Papers of One Still Living. Published against his will.
1840
July 3 Søren Kierkegaard passes the examination for the theological degree.
July 19 - August 6 Søren Kierkegaard travels to Jutland.
September 8 Søren Kierkegaard proposes to Regine Olsen.
1841
c. August 11 Søren Kierkegaard returns Regine Olsen’s ring.
September 29 Søren Kierkegaard defends his dissertation On the Concept of Irony (with continual reference to Socrates) for the degree of magister.
October 11 Søren Kierkegaard makes the final break with Regine Olsen.
October 25 Søren Kierkegaard departs for Berlin.
1842
March 6 Søren Kierkegaard returns from Berlin.
1843
February 20 Either- Or, published by Victor Eremita.
May 8 Søren Kierkegaard departs from Berlin.
May 16 Two Edifying Discourses
End of June Søren Kierkegaard returns from Berlin.
October 16
Repetition by Constantin Constantius
Fear and Trembling by Johannes de silentio
Three Edifying Discourses
December 6 Four Edifying Discourses
1844
March 5 Two Edifying Discourses
June 8 Three Edifying Discourses
June 13 Philosophical Fragments or A Fragment of Philosophy
By Johannes Climacus, published by S. Kierkegaard.June 17 The Concept of Anxiety by Vigilius Haufniensis.
Foreword by Nicolaus Notabene.August 31 Four Edifying Discourses
1845
April 29 Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions.
April 30 Stages on Life’s Way, published by Hilarius Bogbinder.
May 13 Søren Kierkegaard departs for Berlin.
May 24 Søren Kierkegaard returns from Berlin.
May 29 Eighteen Edifying Discourses. Published by C.A. Reitzel.
December 27 Newspaper article: "The Activity of a wandering aesthetician, and how he ended up paying for the feast," signed Frater Taciturnus, responsible for the 3rd section of Stages on Life's Way. This article contains the statement: " Now if only I might soon appear in the Corsair." This started the quarrel with the humourous magazine The Corsair, which caricatured SK in text and cartoon until the summer of 1846.
1846
February 27 Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments by Johannes Climacus, published by S. Kierkegaard.
March 30 A Literary Review
May 2 [?] Søren Kierkegaard departs for Berlin.
May 16 Søren Kierkegaard returns from Berlin.
1847
March 13 Edifying Discourses in various Spirits.
September 29 Works of Love.
November 3 Regine Olsen marries Frederik Schlegel.
1848
April 26 Christian Discourses
July 24-27 Serialized newspaper story “The Crisis and a crisis in an Actress’ Life” by Inter et Inter in Fædrelandet.
1849
May 14
The Lilies of the Field and the Birds of the Air.
Three Devotional Discourses
May 19 Two Minor Ethical-Religious Essays by H.H.
July 30 The Sickness unto Death by Anti-Climacus, published by S. Kierkegaard
Nov. 13 “The High Priest” - “The Publican “ - “The Woman that was a Sinner”,
Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays.
1850
September 27 Practice in Christianity by Anti-Climacus, published by S. Kierkegaard.
December 20 An Edifying Discourse.
1851
August 7 On my Activity as an Author
Discourses at the Communion on Fridays
September 10 For Self-Examination (Recommended to the present age)
1854
January 30 Bishop Mynster dies.
April 15 Professor Martensen named bishop.
December 18 Newspaper article: “Was Bishop Mynster a 'Witness to the Truth,’ one of 'the proper witnesses to the truth’ - is this the truth?”
December 30 Newspaper article: “Leave it at that!.”
1855
January 12 Newspaper article: “A request to me from Pastor Paludan Müller”.
January 29 Newspaper article: “The point at issue with Bishop Martensen; who, ...
March 20 Newspaper article: “Upon the Death of Bishop Mynster”
March 21 Newspaper article: “Is this Christian worship of God or is it playing the fool with God?”
March 22 Newspaper article: “What is to be done. - It will now happen with me or with someone else.”
March 26 Newspaper article: “The religious situation”
March 28 Newspaper article: “One Thesis - only a single one”
March 30 Newspaper article: “Salt; since Christendom is: the decay of Christianity, “a Christian World is: the refuse from Christianity.”
March 31 Newspaper article: “What do I want?”
April 7 Newspaper article: “On the occasion of the anonymous proposal to me in this paper’s no. 79.”
April 11 Newspaper article: “Was it really right to 'stop now with pealing’?” and “Christianity with royal patent and Christianity without royal patent.”
April 27 Newspaper article: “What a cruel punishment!”
May 10 Newspaper article: “A Result” “A Monologue”
May 15 Newspaper article: “With regard to an idiotic joke aimed directly at me and the view of Christianity with which I am identified?”
May 16 Newspaper article: “To the new edition of Practice in Christianity”
May 24 This Must Be Said, So Let It Be Said.
May 26 Newspaper article: “That Bishop Martensen’s silence is 1) indefensible in a Christian sense; 2) ridiculous; 3) stupidly shrewd; 4) in more than one sense contemptible”
May 26 Øieblikket Nr. 1
June 6 Øieblikket Nr. 2
June 16 What judgement Christ passes on official Christianity.
June 28 Øieblikket Nr. 3
July 9 Øieblikket Nr. 4
July 30 Øieblikket Nr. 5
August 24 Øieblikket Nr. 6
August 31 Øieblikket Nr. 7
September 3 The Immutability of God. A Discourse
September 14 Øieblikket Nr. 8
September 25 Øieblikket Nr. 9
October 2 Søren Kierkegaard admitted to Frederik’s Hospital.
November 11 Søren Kierkegaard dies.
November 18 Søren Kierkegaard’s funeral held at The Church of Our Lady with burial at Assistens Cemetery.