When1: 1841
When2: 1849
Who: Søren Aabye Kierkegaard [Kierkegaard, Søren Aabye]
What: philosopher
Where: Copenhagen, Denmark
works\ On the Concept of Irony [1841]; Either/Or [1843]; Fear and Trembling [1843]; Philosophical Fragments [1844]; Concept of Anxiety [1844]; Stages on Life's Way [1845]; Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments [1846]; Sickness unto Death [1849]
Detail: He lived 1813 to 1855, was Christian, and founded existentialism. He criticized Hegel's absolute consciousness, which left out subjectivity and personality in favor of rationalism.
Epistemology
Truth is in self. Subjectivity gives truth.
Religion knows truth first by revelation and personal feeling {Religiousness A} and then by history and the eternal {Religiousness B}.
Ethics
People should do good deeds for spiritual satisfaction alone, not to reach goal, gain reward, or avoid punishment {double-mindedness}.
To act ethically, people cannot use objective standards, because choices are personal. People must develop self or essence through ethics. Self makes choice and commits to idea or action.
People have sense of anxiety, dread, or anguish about having no control and facing life's vicissitudes {angst, Kierkegaard}. People can try to avoid spiritual satisfaction {despair, Kierkegaard}, by denying God, by not thinking about it, by trying to be someone else, or by suicide. Despair can lead to rejecting pleasurable life and discovering self. People need faith, the opposite of despair or doubt, to avoid despair and suffering.
Mind
People's use of will to make choices with meaning and passion gives them self-interest and structure. People develop themselves over life. People have essences, which try to come into existence and thus pass through three life stages: aesthetic, ethical, and religious. Societies or political groups do not define people.
Social Sciences>Philosophy>History>Mind
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Date Modified: 2022.0224