Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard
by Scott Bradley

Soren Kierkegaard has been called the father of existentialism. I have long loved his philosophy, though I probably don’t understand it all that well. No matter, it’s the way he did philosophy that inspires me.

Existentialism concerns itself with the experience of existence. Essence is about Ideals and Truth. Existence is experience. Personal experience. That’s where existentialism begins and ends.

Kierkegaard developed a philosophy of life around his own somewhat tormented inner experience. He wrote Either/Or when he decided not to marry. Fear and Trembling is about his own struggle to believe, though its only reference is to Abraham, knife in hand, poised over the sacrifice his god requires, his son. He examined life through the only eyes available to him, his own. Yet, he tells us a great deal about ourselves, I think, because we all seem to have a great deal in common.

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