Søren Kierkegaard

( 1813 – 1855 )

Danish philosopher and theologian, widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He considered himself a religious author and anti-philosopher and was highly critical of Hegel. His work deals with Christian morality and love, and with how one lives as a single individual, exploring the emotions and feelings humans face when faced with life choices.

Contrary to Hegel (who thought that existence and thought are identical), Kierkegaard claimed that it is impossible to think existence. According to him, thought is always a form of abstraction – that is, language abstracts from experience in order to allow the possibility of thought and communication – so, language (ie. thought) distances us from real existence, which is not abstract, but concrete.

Following from this, Kierkegaard was not interested in what this means for the concrete existence of things or an external reality, but rather, what does this mean for the concreteness of the individual human existence.

According to him existence cannot be thought about, it must be lived.
Existence is equated with passion, decision and action (none of these categories can be fully developed in thought)
Existence is interwoven with existential thought, which is dedicated to the task of existing and becoming conscious of what existence is. Kierkegaard stresses the importance of the self and the self’s relation to the world as being grounded in self-reflection and introspection.

Regarding the notion of existential thought, Kierkegaard proposes a distinction between two kinds of thought:

Objective thought: thinking for which there is an objective criteria of truth such as mathematics, science, history.

For example: 3+2=5, or “Plato was a Greek philosopher from Athens”.
Objective truths exist, but they are existentially indifferent, that is, they have no relationship to individual human existence (if you find out and objective truth is false, you would be surprised, but it would not change who you are as a person)

Subjective thought: thoughts for which there is no objective criteria of truth, such as values or ethical and religious claims.

For example, if I try to convince someone that what they are doing is wrong, there is no objective standard for me to appeal to and prove my claim (if I say that lying is wrong and appeal to the categorical imperative, someone can simply say they don’t accept the value of consistency and non-contradictoriness and there is nothing I can do about it to convince them otherwise). Subjective truths are essential to existence and have a big influence on the individual human life.

According to Kierkegaard, at the bottom of human lived experience lies uncertainty and nothingness. In the face of this underlying uncertainty of the world, the need for values and decisiveness arises. For Kierkegaard, we are what we do and our actions are the result of decisions we make, which in turn are the embodiment of the values we choose. However, these values cannot be grounded in certainty, but are always accepted on the basis of faith.

For Kierkegaard, the self is subjectivity, which is constituted by the individual’s commitment to their subjective truths. The authentic self ‘chooses itself’ through self-reflection, which both clarifies and creates values. Here Kierkegaard introduces one of the most important ideas in his philosophy: The Knight of Faith

these are individuals who can grasp their own freedom and create their own destiny
they understand the absurdity and contingency of existence, yet they find strength in themselves to hold the world together with faith
in placing complete faith in themselves, they are able to gracefully embrace life in all its absurdity and uncertainty