Soren Keirkegaard

By: Madison Richardson&Hannah Keith

BiographySoren Kierkegaard• May 5, 1813- November 11, 1855• Youngest child of 7, born to parents of

Jutlandish descent• Influenced early by devoutly religious

teachings of his father (concentrated on Christ suffering)

• 1830- studied theology, philosophy, and literature at the University of Copenhagen; mother died; began famous journal he would keep for 20 years

• 1840- completed his doctoral dissertation entitled on the concept of irony

Spiritual History

• Proposed that the individual passed through 3 stages on the way to become a true-self: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious• Believes you can’t live an

authentically Christian live while surrounded by people who are falsely religious

Aesthetic P.O.V

• Aesthetic is the philosophical study of beauty and taste• Believed that the aesthetic is the life

that promises us a series of temporary reliefs from despair• However, with repetition, pleasures

would lose intensity and interest

Ethical P.O.V

• Believed that a divine command from God transcends ethics• Argued that God necessarily create

human morality• Argued that ethics is up to the

individuals to create morals and values

Influence of Other Philosophers• Soren & Fichte- both interested in this

idea of beginning with doubt as well as subjectivity• Soren & Hegel- Soren criticize

aspects of Hegel but respected the man as well• Soren & Schelling- Soren use to

respect Schelling but as time progressed he became disillusioned to Soren• Soren & Schopenhauer- Soren

disagreed with everything Schopenhauer said