Kierkegaard Essays

Soren Kierkegaard, in his essay, the Present Age, writes about two ages—the passionate age and the present age: an age of dispassionate reflection. Kierkegaard believes the present age to be centered on reflection (deliberation, representation, anticipation), which substitutes for decisive action. The present age, according to Kierkegaard is “characterized by an ‘unhappy objectivity,’ in which the individual has become ‘leveled down’ and loses himself as part of a crowd. “ One aspect of this unhappy

2. The Existentialist philosophy, started by Soren Kierkegaard, focuses on self-directed education, finding answers within yourself. Students are not graded because all standards come from themselves. This philosophy emphasizes freedom of choice and mind, and that authentic creative thinking leads to true learning experiences (Cohen). The teacher helps students find their passions and understand who they are. Existentialism has never become prevalent in schools because it is difficult to apply in

“What is offered here is only a pamphlet...without any claim to being a part of the scientific-scholarly endeavor…” (Preface 1 IV 176). Near the end of his preface Kierkegaard, in efforts to convey his intent to write without bias, claims he will not share his opinion (IV 178). Upon establishing his character as a writer, Kierkegaard divulges into what he calls his “Thought Project” as is found in part one of “Philosophical Fragments. In this section he starts by contemplating if indeed truth can

held up by Kierkegaard as the perfect model for faith in Fear and Trembling. The specific example most strongly used in Kierkegaard’s writing is the unhesitant actions of Abraham to heed God’s call and sacrifice his only son and promised heir to his kingdom, Isaac. Abraham faithfully follows God’s command without remorse, doubt, sadness, or anger. It is only moments before the murder and sacrifice of Isaac that God intervenes and send a ram in his stead. This action is elevated by Kierkegaard as the

Philosophies of Kierkegaard and Kant In this paper, I will investigate the comparable and contrasting views of Soren Kierkegaard and Immanuel Kant. Their extraordinary journeys towards the meaning of morality and ethics is riveting, spiritual, universal, and in many ways, incredibly different. My conclusion is that though there are aspects which bind their theories together, ultimately both men possess different understandings of what morality is and how an individual ought to be moral. Kierkegaard, while

journal with the goal of recounting my travels to different philosophical societies. Remarkably, each one of the three societies I was privileged enough to travel to r igidly followed a renowned philosophy. These were the philosophies of Plato, Soren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche. The Republic The first society I visited was that of Plato ’s philosophy. The residents were very kind and sought out true meanings of different vi rtues solely by dialectic. They structured their city much the same way

Kierkegaard, in Works of Love uses 1 Cor. 8:1 “Love builds up” as a starting point to discuss how love can be discussed. He begins his discussion by recognizing that to “build up” is a transferred expression that has both a general and spiritual meaning. In the general sense, Kierkegaard says that to “build up” is “to construct something from the ground up into the heights” (201). It is not just to build, but to build from the foundation, from the ground, up. He provides the example of the parable

reference to Christianity for Kierkegaard. His argument was that the only way that you can understand and know the truth about Christianity is from a personal subjective standpoint and not by objective analysis. He admits that it is ineffective to find the truth about Christianity through historical analysis because no matter how many times you try to look at it objectively, the result will only be an educated guess and not the ultimate truth. By reading more on Kierkegaard, you also learn his perspective

of our life. Kierkegaard expresses how he believes that “the sickness of the soul” is something a human experience when their soul is not spiritually lifted. On page 272 he exclaims that the Christian ability to acknowledge the sickness and have the ability to detect this, being a product of a lack of spiritual stimulation, is “man’s advantage over the beast” and that the Christian man is better off than the “natural man”. Could any kind of belief system be as effective as Kierkegaard describes being

19th century Danish philosopher Kierkegaard (who developed existentialist philosophy to confront this disharmony), in order to resolve the dilemma one must either commit suicide, pursue belief in an objective meaning determined by some transcendent being, or accept the absurdity of the universe (Francis 16). Kierkegaard dismisses the first option as obviously inviable, and argues that the second, while not necessarily rational, is a feasible solution (Kierkegaard 171). Albert Camus, who regards the