Søren Kierkegaard

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
Unfinished sketch of Kierkegaard by his cousin Niels Christian Kierkegaard, c. 1840.
Born	(1813-05-05)5 May 1813 Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark
Died	11 November 1855(1855-11-11) (aged 42) Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark
Nationality	Danish
Alma mater	University of Copenhagen (PhD, 1841)
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Christian existentialism Existential psychology Existentialism
Main interests	Aesthetics Christianity Epistemology Ethics Metaphysics Philosophy of religion Poetry Psychology
Notable ideas	The Absurd Angst Authenticity Existential despair Existential philosophy Knight of faith Leap of faith Present age
Influences Aristotle Augustine Burke Descartes Diogenes Hamann Hegel Kant Lessing Luther Mozart Olsen Schelling Schopenhauer Shakespeare Socrates
Influenced Adorno Barth Beauvoir Bergman Buber Camus Derrida Heidegger Ibsen Jaspers Lévinas Marcel Sartre Schmitt Shestov Tillich Miguel de Unamuno Wahl Wittgenstein
Signature

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (/ˈsɔːrən ˈkɪərkᵻɡɑːrd/ or /ˈkɪərkᵻɡɔːr/; Danish: [sɶːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯ɡ̊əɡ̊ɒːˀ]; 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".