Corsair Affair

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
Unfinished sketch of Kierkegaard by his cousin Niels Christian Kierkegaard, c. 1840
Born	(1813-05-05)5 May 1813 Copenhagen, Denmark–Norway
Died	11 November 1855(1855-11-11) (aged 42) Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality	Danish
Alma mater	University of Copenhagen
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy Christian existentialism Existential psychology Existentialism
Main interests	Aesthetics Christianity Epistemology Ethics Metaphysics Philosophy of Christianity Poetry Psychology
Notable ideas	The Absurd Angst Authenticity Existential despair Existential philosophy Knight of faith Leap of faith Present age
Influences Descartes Hamann Hegel Heiberg Kant Lessing Luther Møller Olsen Plato Schelling Schopenhauer Shakespeare Socrates Wolff
Influenced Adorno Barth Bergman Freud Buber Camus Dostoyevsky Heidegger Ibsen Jaspers Lévinas Marcel May Sartre Shestov Tillich Miguel de Unamuno Wahl Wittgenstein West
Signature

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (/ˈsɔːrən ˈkɪərkɪɡɑːrd/ or /-ɡɔːr/; Danish: [sɶːɐn ˈkiɐ̯ɡəɡɒːˀ] ( listen); 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. He was against literary critics who defined idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, and thought that Swedenborg,Hegel,Goethe,Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel and Hans Christian Andersen were all "understood" far too quickly by "scholars".