Sren Aabye

Kierkegaard
Father of Existentialism

Kierkegaard was born in

Copenhagen, the youngest
of seven children in 1813.
He spent his formative
years under the influence of
his melancholic and
devoutly religious father
whose teachings stressed
the suffering of Christ.
Kierkegaard went to study
philosophy and theology at
the University of
Copenhagen, where his
personal despair grew .

-his public reputation was a frivolous, witty

conversationalist while suffering privately
from severe melancholy and depression

What is existentialism?
Existentialism

is a philosophical
movement which is considered a study
that pursues meaning in existence and
seeks value for the existing individual.
Existentialism, unlike other fields of
philosophy, does not treat the individual as
a concept, and values individual
subjectivity over objectivity.

Subjectivity vs. Objectivity

Direct
Communication
consists of statements
that can be
communicated and
understood without
appropriation, that is,
without experiencing
personally what is
being communicated.
Objective knowledge
can be communicated
directly

Indirect
Communication
requires appropriation
on the part of the
receiver. The receiver
must experience what
is being
communicated, not
just hear it.

Very Religious.
Kierkegaard concludes that God must exist
because objective knowledge is obtainable
only through God. He spends a lot of time
explaining through examples why it is
impossible for humans to escape their
individual or even collective perceptions.
Thus, if we wish to obtain true objective
thought we must seek answers through
prayer to access the only objective thinker
that exists, God. The implications are still
overwhelming.

Written Works:

Concluding Unscientific Postscript

(1846)- describes a third way of life,
the possibility of living by faith in the
modern world by emphasizing the
importance of the individual and
developing a conception of Subjective
truth. A.K.A-introspection,
experiences, especially one's
relationship with God.

Enten-Eller (Either-Or) (1843) provides an extended

contrast between aesthetic and ethical ways of life, with
emphasis on the ways in which radical human freedom
inevitably leads to despair.
Many more

Comparison:

Mahayana Buddhism's ideal of an authentic

religious experience leading to salvation is
characterized by the Bodhisattva path. Like
Kierkegaard's "Christian", the Bodhisattva
ideal is theoretically attainable by all, but
few actually do. Mahayana Buddhism tends
to be more hopeful in its belief that all can
and should attain enlightenment. In this
context, enlightenment means the coming
to truth out of ignorance.

Valid?

I think personally, that his views are a

little too religious. I think that a
person can still have perceptions and
propositions without going through a
God first. However he is respected
because through is depression and
everything he still was able to come
up with ideas about existentialism of
people, and today people do fallow his
theories.