The titles of some of his best-known books offer telling insights into the philosophy of the Danish writer Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855): Fear and Trembling (1843), The Concept of Anxiety (1844), The Sickness Unto Death (1849).

In his short and mostly unhappy life, Kierkegaard wrote prolifically about angst, despair, and what he viewed as the decay of the Christian church in his native Denmark. He is sometimes called the Father of Existentialism, a nickname that recognizes his influence on European philosophers in the twentieth century.

Kierkegaard was born in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, where he lived for most of his life. His father was a deeply religious and guilt-ridden man who believed his son was fated to die early as punishment for his own sins. Kierkegaard attended the University of Copenhagen to study philosophy and theology, earning his doctorate in 1841.

A key event in his life occurred in 1837, when he first met fourteen-year-old Regine Olsen (1822–1904), who would become the object of his lifelong desire. The couple was briefly engaged, but Kierkegaard broke off the engagement in 1841 for reasons that are unclear. For the rest of his life, however, he would pine for Regine, even after she married another man.

His most famous work, Either/Or, was published in 1843. The work contained a detailed criticism of Hegel (1770–1831), arguing that Hegel’s dialectic denied the importance of free will.

Two years later, another of Kierkegaard’s books was lampooned by a Danish newspaper, the Corsair. The incident started a war of words between the philosopher and the newspaper’s editors, which culminated in 1846 when the paper published a series of personal attacks against him. At one point, he was even accosted by readers of the newspaper as he walked down a Copenhagen street.

Kierkegaard continued to write for the rest of his life, living off his inheritance from his father. He published a series of increasingly pointed criticisms of the official Danish Lutheran church; Kierkegaard targeted the clergy especially, believing priests were more concerned with repeating church dogma than helping individuals understand their relationships with God.

He died in a Copenhagen hospital at age forty-two.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. Kierkegaard wrote under a variety of assumed names—some of them purposely ridiculous. His pseudonyms included Constantin Constantius, Vigilius Haufniensis, Hilarius Bogbinder, and Johannes Climacus.
  2. French director Daniele Dubroux (1947–) turned Kierkegaard’s 1843 essay “The Diary of a Seducer” into a movie in 1996.
  3. Kierkegaard left Denmark only five times, visiting Germany four times and Sweden once.

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