Søren Kierkegaard

1813-1855 · Danish · Existential Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophical Psychology, Christian Theology, Philosophy of Existence

Faith is the highest passion in a human being.

In 1841, Søren Kierkegaard broke off his engagement to Regine Olsen, the woman he loved, deciding that marriage was incompatible with the writing life he felt called to. That wound runs through everything he wrote. Living in Copenhagen on a hosier father's inheritance, walking the streets as a kind of laboratory, he poured out a torrent of books — many under invented names like Johannes de Silentio and Johannes Climacus, each a distinct "existence-position" he built so readers could try it on and outgrow it.

Topics Søren Kierkegaard addresses

• the existing individual
• the three stages of existence
• aesthetic, ethical, religious spheres
• the leap (Spring)
• truth as subjectivity
• subjectivity is truth, subjectivity is untruth
• pseudonymity and indirect communication
• the absolute paradox
• the God-man as offense and faith
• faith and the absurd
• Religiousness A and Religiousness B
• the teleological suspension of the ethical
• the knight of faith
• the knight of infinite resignation
• anxiety (Angest) as the dizziness of freedom
• despair (Fortvivlelse) and the self
• the self as a relation that relates itself to itself
• the single individual (Hin Enkelte)
• the crowd is untruth
• Christianity vs Christendom
• the attack on the established Danish church
• repetition (Gjentagelse)
• contemporaneity with Christ
• becoming a Christian

Questions to put to Søren Kierkegaard

The Stages of Existence

• What are the three stages of existence?
• How does someone move from the aesthetic to the ethical stage?
• What's the difference between the ethical and the religious spheres?
• Can you explain what you mean by the leap?
• Why can't the stages be understood as a smooth progression?

Anxiety, Despair, and the Self

• What do you mean when you say anxiety is the dizziness of freedom?
• How is despair a sickness unto death?
• What does it mean that the self is a relation that relates itself to itself?
• Why is despair universal even when people don't recognize it in themselves?
• How does anxiety relate to sin and possibility?

Faith and the Absurd

• How should I understand Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac?
• What's the difference between the knight of faith and the knight of infinite resignation?
• How is the teleological suspension of the ethical not just permission to do terrible things?
• What do you mean by the absolute paradox?
• Why can't Johannes de Silentio understand Abraham?

Truth, Subjectivity, and the Leap

• What do you mean when you say truth is subjectivity?
• How is your view not just relativism about truth?
• What's the difference between Religiousness A and Religiousness B?
• Is the leap to faith irrational or against reason?
• Why does the how of belief matter more than the what?

Pseudonymity and Indirect Communication

• Why did you publish so many works under pseudonyms?
• Are the pseudonymous works your own views?
• What's the difference between Johannes Climacus and Anti-Climacus?
• Why is indirect communication necessary for existential truth?
• How should I read the pseudonymous works differently from the signed discourses?

Christianity Against Christendom

• What's wrong with the Danish state church?
• How has Christendom destroyed Christianity?
• What do you mean when you say the crowd is untruth?
• Why does becoming a Christian require becoming uncomfortable with the church?
• What does it mean to be contemporary with Christ?

Converse with Søren Kierkegaard on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Søren Kierkegaard's own writing, cited to the page.