kierkegaard philosophy explained: insights from kierkegaard: the father of existentialism. # Kierkegaard: The Father of Existentialism Søren
Curating knowledge from across disciplines to enlighten and inspire. Each article is crafted with care to make complex topics accessible and engaging.
Unlock the power of meaning of life. Expert insights, practical tips, and everything you need to know about meaning of life.
Confused about what does existentialism mean? Unravel the mystery behind this philosophy and meet the minds that shaped it!
What is existentialism, really? A clear guide to the philosophy of existence — from Kierkegaard's leap of faith to Camus's absurd hero, and why it matters in the 21st century.
Delve into Camus absurdism philosophy to uncover how embracing the absurd can lead to profound meaning, personal freedom, and authentic living.
Søren Kierkegaard, a 19th-century Danish philosopher and theologian, stands as one of the most influential thinkers in Western philosophy. Often called the "father of existentialism," Kierkegaard's profound insights into human existence, faith, anxiety, and individual authenticity laid the groundwork for existentialist philosophy and continue to resonate deeply in our modern world. His work challenges us to confront fundamental questions about how we live, what we believe, and who we truly are.
Related: Learn more about Existentialism Explained: From Kierkegaard to Camus
Related: Learn more about Aristotle: The Father of Western Philosophy
Related: Learn more about Albert Camus and Absurdism: Finding Meaning in a Meaningless World
Born in Copenhagen in 1813, Søren Aabye Kierkegaard grew up in a household marked by deep religious piety and melancholy. His father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard, was a wealthy merchant who had risen from poverty but carried a profound sense of guilt and religious anxiety, believing his family was cursed by God. This psychological and spiritual atmosphere deeply influenced young Søren, shaping his preoccupation with sin, suffering, and the nature of faith.
Kierkegaard studied theology and philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, though he was more interested in literature and psychology than systematic theology. His life took a dramatic turn in 1840 when he became engaged to Regine Olsen, a young woman he deeply loved. However, in a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his life, Kierkegaard broke off the engagement in 1841, believing himself unsuited for marriage and called to a solitary intellectual and spiritual mission.
This personal crisis became central to his philosophical work. The pain of losing Regine, combined with his complex relationship with his father and his struggle with faith, became the experiential foundation for his exploration of human existence, choice, and commitment. Kierkegaard died in 1855 at the age of 42, having produced an extraordinary body of work in just over a decade of intense writing.
Kierkegaard's philosophy emerged as a reaction against the dominant philosophical system of his time: Hegelian idealism. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel had created a grand philosophical system that attempted to explain all of reality through abstract logical categories and the dialectical progression of history toward absolute knowledge. For Hegel, individual existence was merely a moment in the unfolding of universal Spirit.
Kierkegaard found this approach fundamentally misguided. He argued that Hegel's system overlooked what matters most: the concrete, lived experience of the individual human being. Abstract systems cannot capture the anxiety, passion, despair, and faith that characterize actual human existence. Kierkegaard famously declared that "truth is subjectivity," meaning that the most important truths are those we must live, not merely contemplate abstractly.
This emphasis on individual existence, subjective truth, and personal commitment became the foundation of existentialist philosophy. Kierkegaard insisted that we cannot understand human beings through objective, scientific analysis alone. We must grapple with the first-person experience of being a self—a being confronted with choices, possibilities, and the fundamental task of becoming who we are.
One of Kierkegaard's most influential contributions is his analysis of three fundamental life-orientations or "stages on life's way": the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
The aesthetic individual lives for immediate pleasure, sensory experience, and the avoidance of boredom. The aesthete seeks novelty, excitement, and the cultivation of refined tastes. This might manifest as Don Juan's pursuit of romantic conquests or as the sophisticated appreciation of art and culture. The aesthete's motto might be "enjoy the moment" or "live for pleasure."
However, Kierkegaard argues that the aesthetic life ultimately leads to despair. Because it depends on external circumstances and fleeting pleasures, it cannot provide lasting fulfillment. The aesthete becomes trapped in a cycle of seeking new experiences to escape the emptiness that inevitably follows each pleasure. The aesthetic life lacks commitment and depth—it is characterized by irony, detachment, and an inability to truly commit to anything or anyone.
The ethical individual overcomes aesthetic despair by committing to universal moral principles and social duties. This stage is exemplified by marriage, career, and civic responsibility. The ethical person finds meaning through commitment to ethical norms, taking responsibility for their choices, and living according to moral law.
The ethical stage represents a significant advance over the aesthetic because it involves genuine commitment and the acceptance of responsibility. However, Kierkegaard argues that even the ethical life faces a crisis. The individual discovers that they cannot perfectly fulfill the moral law—there is always a gap between who they should be and who they are. This realization can lead to guilt and a recognition of human limitation.
The highest stage, according to Kierkegaard, is the religious life, where the individual makes a "leap of faith" beyond rational justification. This is not the comfortable, conventional religion of social Christianity, but an authentic, passionate relationship with God that requires absolute commitment.
Kierkegaard illustrates this stage through his analysis of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham's faith cannot be justified by universal ethical principles—indeed, it seems to contradict ethics. Yet Abraham makes a "teleological suspension of the ethical," trusting in God beyond what reason can comprehend. This represents the paradox of faith: a passionate, personal commitment that transcends rational certainty.
In his groundbreaking work "The Concept of Anxiety," Kierkegaard explores the fundamental mood or feeling that characterizes human existence: anxiety (or dread/angst). Unlike fear, which has a specific object, anxiety is the feeling we experience when confronted with the possibility of freedom itself.
Humans are unique because we are not simply determined by our nature or circumstances. We face possibilities and must make choices that define who we become. This freedom is both exhilarating and terrifying—it is the source of anxiety. When we confront the abyss of our own freedom, we experience "the dizziness of freedom," the vertiginous realization that we must choose without any guarantee that we are choosing correctly.
Kierkegaard describes this as standing at the edge of a cliff: we feel both the fear of falling and a strange attraction to the possibility of leaping. Anxiety reveals our fundamental condition as beings who must create ourselves through our choices, without any pre-given essence or script to follow.
This analysis profoundly influenced later existentialists like Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre, who made anxiety central to their philosophies. Kierkegaard showed that anxiety is not merely a psychological problem to be overcome but a fundamental aspect of being human—the feeling that accompanies our awareness of freedom and possibility.
In "The Sickness Unto Death," Kierkegaard provides a profound analysis of despair as the fundamental spiritual malady of human existence. Despair is not simply sadness or depression; it is the condition of being in a wrong relationship with oneself.
Kierkegaard defines the self as "a relation which relates itself to itself." To be a self is to be in a relationship with oneself, and despair occurs when this relationship is out of balance. There are two basic forms of despair:
Both forms of despair represent a failure to accept the true nature of selfhood—that we are neither entirely self-created nor simply given, but must become ourselves in relationship with the power that created us (God). The cure for despair is faith: accepting yourself as you are while also committed to becoming who you are called to be.
Throughout his work, Kierkegaard emphasized the importance of becoming an individual—not just a member of the crowd or a cog in a system, but an authentic self. He criticized the tendency of modern society to reduce people to abstract categories, statistics, or functions.
Kierkegaard argued that the crowd is untruth. When we lose ourselves in mass movements, public opinion, or social conformity, we evade the responsibility of becoming individuals. Authentic existence requires that we take responsibility for our own lives, make our own choices, and stand alone before God if necessary.
This emphasis on individuality and authenticity became central to later existentialism and continues to resonate in our age of social media, where the pressure to conform to public opinion and present curated versions of ourselves is greater than ever. Kierkegaard's call to authentic individual existence remains radically relevant.
Kierkegaard's understanding of religious faith was revolutionary and controversial. He rejected the comfortable, rational Christianity of his time, where faith was reduced to intellectual assent to doctrines or participation in social rituals. For Kierkegaard, genuine faith is passionate, personal, and paradoxical.
Faith cannot be achieved through reason alone because its object—the infinite, eternal God becoming a finite, temporal human being in Christ—is rationally absurd. Yet this absurdity is precisely what makes faith necessary. If we could prove God's existence or rationally justify Christian doctrine, we wouldn't need faith; we would have knowledge.
Faith requires a "leap" beyond what reason can support, a passionate commitment in the face of uncertainty. This doesn't mean faith is irrational in the sense of being contrary to reason, but that it transcends reason, addressing questions and concerns that reason alone cannot resolve.
Though largely ignored during his lifetime outside of Denmark, Kierkegaard's influence on 20th-century philosophy, theology, and psychology has been enormous. His work profoundly influenced:
Understanding kierkegaard philosophy remains profoundly relevant in the 21st century. We live in an age of unprecedented freedom and choice, yet many people experience anxiety, depression, and a sense of meaninglessness. Kierkegaard helps us understand why: freedom without commitment leads to despair; conformity to social expectations leaves us feeling inauthentic; and the evasion of ultimate questions about meaning and purpose creates spiritual sickness.
Kierkegaard challenges us to live authentically, to make genuine commitments, to accept the anxiety of freedom, and to seek truth in passionate, personal engagement rather than detached objectivity. His philosophy reminds us that we are not merely thinking machines or biological organisms, but existing individuals who must take responsibility for who we become.
In a world of increasing abstraction, technological mediation, and social conformity, Kierkegaard's call to become an individual—to choose, to commit, to live passionately—remains as urgent and transformative as ever. He teaches us that the examined life is not merely an intellectual exercise but an existential imperative, and that authentic existence requires courage, commitment, and faith.
<h2>Related Articles</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="/blog/adhd-paralysis">ADHD Paralysis: Why You Can't Start (and What to Do)</a></li>
<li><a href="/blog/meaning-of-life-philosophy">What Is the Meaning of Life? Philosophy's Greatest Question</a></li>
<li><a href="/blog/how-to-develop-critical-thinking-skills">How to Develop Critical Thinking Skills: A Practical Guide</a></li>
<li><a href="/blog/adhd-coping-strategies">ADHD Coping Strategies That Actually Work</a></li>
<li><a href="/blog/stoicism-ancient-wisdom-for-modern-life">Stoicism: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Life</a></li>
</ul>
