Soren Kierkegaard in 5 Minutes - The Father of Existentialism

Soren Kierkegaard is commonly known as the "Father of Existentialism". This brief introduction to Kierkegaard looks at why you should care about the Danish philosopher and why his work is still relevant today.

Link to the deep dive: https://youtu.be/T7tr3oO-ues

Kierkegaard was one of the most prodigious philosophers. In 1843 he published three books in a single day (one of which Fear and Trembling is commonly placed in the canon of great philosophy). In the space of three years he published sixteen books. These books were written using various pseudonyms with many different stylistic devices. This was all part of Kierkegaard's style of "Indirect Communication". Like Socrates he didn't want to give answers he wanted to awaken the quest for individuality in his readers.

Kierkegaard was part of the select group of Christian Existentialism (his most famous peer being Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky). Like Nietzsche he hated the Church. His form of Christianity was about the self-making quest of Faith. This self is forged out of the dizzying Anxiety of choosing. This choice of faith can only be made by the individual and this is why Soren Kierkegaard spent his career trying to call people away from the "levelling" of Modernity which was turning everyone into "The Crowd" and away from the Church which kept its congregation like children. He was calling them to the "highest passion" of faith. He was calling them to forge their own selves and not give into the inauthenticity of Despair. In this introduction to Kierkegaard we take a brief look at the most compelling reasons why Kierkegaard is relevant today.

📚 Further Reading:

• McDonald, William, "Søren Kierkegaard", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/kierkegaard/
• McDonald, William, Søren Kierkegaard (1813—1855), Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Available at: https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega (more in-depth than the Stanford one. Highly recommend)
• Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography by Joakim Graff (https://amzn.to/3Sx1Tm5)
• Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3DrOVBC)
• Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3TxiNCv)
• Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard (https://amzn.to/3TxiY0D)

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🎵 Media Used:

1. Shores of Avalon — Kevin MacLeod
2. Despair and Triumph  — Kevin MacLeod
3. Long Note Three  — Kevin MacLeod

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