Søren Kierkegaard

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ({{APIb| ˈzøːr̩nˈkɪʁgəgɔːʔd}}) (May 5th 1813 - November 11th 1855) is a writer and Philosophe Danish. He is generally recognized like the precursor of the Existentialisme. He was opposed to the philosophy hegélienne of which he considered the comprehension necessary but which was to undergo an inversion, and so that he regarded as the vain formalities of the Danish Church of the time.

The majority of its works treat religious problems such as the nature of the Foi, the establishment of the Christian church, the ethical as well as Christian Théologie.

The work of Kierkegaard is sometimes difficult to interpret, because he wrote the majority of his first works under various pseudonyms, and often these pseudo-authors comment on work of the preceding pseudo-authors. It influenced Heidegger which described it not of philosopher but as “Christian thinker, the only one which was with the measurement of its time”.

Biography

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard is born in 1813 with Copenhagen, with the Denmark, in a family of 7 children, of a father having made fortune in the trade of hosier and pertaining at a very enthusiastic community Piétiste which is worth to him, according to its clean dires, “a strict and austere Christian education which was, at human sights, a madness”.

In 1821, it enters to the Borgerdydsskole (in Danish, “the school of the civic virtue”), a very élitiste private school where it is pointed out by his intelligence out of the commun run and, in 1831, the year of died of Hegel, it begins his studies of Théologie at the University of Copenhagen.

From 1819 to 1834, the tragedy of the destiny makes that his/her mother, then his/her three older sisters and two of his/her brothers die in turn, either of disease or accidentally, without never exceeding the 33 years age, which leads it to believe that it will not exceed to him either the age of the Christ. Plunged in the melancholy, which is accentuated by the death of his/her father in 1838, it is at 25 years, with his brother Peter, the only survivor of a family of 7 children.

At the time of a dinner in mutual friends, one evening of the month of May 1837, it meets the young person Régine Olsen, of which it éprend. In 1840, he asks it even in marriage, which she accepts, but it brutally breaks with her 1 year later, after him to have returned its ring of engagement.

The same year, it supports its thesis of doctorate on the concept of irony constantly brought back to Socrate and, the broken heart, is exiled in Berlin where it follows the courses of Schelling, of which it returns disappointed.

Living fortune of his father and affirming not to have “not time to marry”, it publishes in 1843 its first large book, Or… Or… , under the pseudonym of Victor Eremita and, renonçant with being Pasteur, engages in an intense philosophical production, whose titles most remarkable, all signed of a different pseudonym, are the concept of anguish (1844), Stades on the way of the life (1845) or final Post-scriptum and not-scientist with the philosophical Crumbs (1846).

After having reached 34 years the unexpected age, it gives to its work of writer a turn definitely more religious, anxious to defend true Christianity against the official Church, with works like the long series of the edifying Discours , the disease with dead the , sometimes translated under the title Traité despair , (1849) and the School of Christianity (1850).

In 1855, it publishes a review, the moment , in which it engages in violent polemics against the Church and dies at the 42 years age, at the hospital, after being ploughed up in the street during a walk.

FOOT-NOTE. -- The family name of the “Kierkegaard” indicates the farm (“gaard”) of the church (“kirke”) of Sædding in which Michael Pedersen, the fifth boy of a family of nine children, had been born in 1756 and of which his/her own father, Peder Christensen, the grandfather of Søren, had taken the name when it was in charge of the share-cropping, without any connection with the substantive homonymic kirkegård which means in Danish “cemetery”.

Philosophy

Subjectivity and faith

Kierkegaard was designated as philosopher, theologist, father of the existentialism, criticizes literary, humorist, psychologist and poet. Two of its popular ideas are the “Subjectivité” and the “Foi”. The jump of the faith is its design in the way in which an individual can believe in a God, or how a person can act by love. It is not a question of a rational decision, because it transcends rationality in favor of something more supernatural: faith, as an absolute. He thinks thus that the faith is accompanied at the same time and paradoxically by the doubt. For example, that which has truly the faith, should also doubt that God exists; the doubt is the rational share of the thought of a person, without whom the faith would not have real consistency. The doubt is an essential component of the faith, a base. Expressed more simply, to believe in a God or to have faith in his existence, without never to have doubted its existence or its quality of god, would not be a faith valid or deserving. For example, no faith is required to believe in the existence of a pencil or of a table, when they are looked at and touches them. In a similar way, to believe or to have faith as a God consists in knowing that there does not exist any perception or another access to God, and yet to keep its faith.

Kierkegaard also stresses the importance of the conscience, and the relation of the conscience in the world as being founded on the self-awareness and introspection. It supports in final and nonscientific Post-scriptum with the philosophical crumbs that “subjectivity is truth” and that “the truth is subjectivity”. This paradoxical idea comes out from a distinction between what is objectively true and the subjective relation which an individual with this truth (indifference or engagement) maintains. For Kierkegaard, people who in a certain direction believe in the same things, can refer to this belief in a different way. Two people could believe both that many people around them are poor and deserve of the assistance, but this knowledge can carry out only one of both to decide to really help the poor.

However, Kierkegaard discusses subjectivity with through mainly of the religious questions, spaces for him of all the questions and answers. Once again, it supports that the doubt is an element of faith, and that it is impossible to obtain an objective certainty in connection with religious doctrines such as the existence of God or the life of Christ. Best than individual can to hope would be to conclude that it is probable that doctrines Christian are veracious, but if a person were to believe such doctrines only because they seem probably true, he is certain that this person would not be truly nun. The faith would thus be consisted a subjective relationship to absolute engagement for these doctrines.

Affects

S. Kierkegaard always takes the affects such as fear, despair, distresses, etc, not like simple psychological categories, but like methods revealing of the possibilities each time specific of the existence. It is while following the wire of these various “affects” that will only be able to open these possibilities.

Thus for example “the anguish” is taken as discussion thread to explore freedom how attests itself with the singular existence, in a paradoxical way, only a free being being able to make the experiment of the anguish - experiment of freedom like burden and obstacle.

Despair

Emphatiquement in the Fatal disease but also in Feared and tremor Kierkegaard states that the human ones are composed of three parts: finished, the infinite one, and the relation between the two which creates a synthesis. Finished (the directions, the body, knowledge) and the infinite ones (the paradox and capacity to be believed) always exist in a state of tension. This tension, conscious of its existence, is the individual. When the individual is lost, insensitive or exuberant, the person is then in a state of despair. In particular, despair is not the anguish and does not summarize itself with a simple feeling; it is, instead of that, the loss of the individual, the negation of “ego” by a disorder in the synthesis.

The theologist Henri de Lubac quotes in Kierkegaard example in the Drama of atheistic humanism (1942).

Indirect communication and pseudonyms of author

Half of work of Kierkegaard were written under the mask of various characters Pseudonyme S whom it created to represent various manners of thinking. It is there part of the indirect communication of Kierkegaard. According to several passage of its work and its newspapers, such explanatory Point of view of my work of writer , Kierkegaard wrote this way in order to prevent its work from being treated like a philosophical system with a systematic structure . In this posthumous work, he writes: “ In work pseudonyms, it does not have there a simple word which is mine. I have any opinion about this work if not as third person, no knowledge of their significance, except like a reader, not the least relation private or distanciée with them. ”

Kierkegaard employed the indirect communication to prevent or obstruct those which would seek to make sure that the author supports really the ideas presented in his works. He hoped that the readers would read simply his work for its abstract value, i.e. without seeking to allot it and interpret it according to certain aspects of its life. Kierkegaard also sought to prevent that the reader regards his work as a system making authority, but seeks rather by itself in the manners of interpreting it.

The first commentators, such Theodor W. Adorno, neglected the intentions of Kierkegaard and support that the entirety of the written production of Kierkegaard must be analyzed like the proper personal ideas and nuns of the author. But this vision could lead to certain confusions and contradictions, which would make Kierkegaard incoherent. Thus, of the later commentators of Kierkegaard sought to respect the intentions of Kierkegaard and interpreted its work by allotting its texts pseudonyms to their respective authors.

The most important pseudonyms of Kierkegaard, in the chronological order:

Victor Eremita, writer of Or… or
have, author of many articles in Or… or
Juge William, author of the refutations with has in Or… or
Johannes de Silentio, author of Crainte and tremor
Constantin Constantius, author of first half of the repetition
Young man, author of second half of the repetition
Vigilius Haufniensis, author of Of the concept of anguish
Nicolaus Notabene, author of the Préfaces
Hilarius it Bookbinder, writer of the Stages on the way of the life
Johannes Climacus, author of the philosophical Crumbs… and of Postscript…
Inter and inter, author of ( the crisis and a crisis in the life of an actress )
H.H., author of ( Two tests éthico-monk )
, author of ( the disease with dead the ) and of ( Practical in Christendom )

Principal works

Thesis: Concept of irony constantly reported to Socrate (1841)
Or… or or the alternative , ( Enten - Eller ) (1843)
Johannes Climacus, or, It is necessary to doubt all (1843, posthumous)
edifying Discours (1843-1847)
Crainte and tremor, lyricism dialectical , ( Frygt og Bæven ) (1843)
the Newspaper of the Seducer , ( Forförerens Dagbog ) (1843)
the repetition, a test of psychology experimental or the recovery , ( Gjentagelsen ) (1843)
philosophical Crumbs or a little philosopher , ( Philosophiske Smuler ) (1844)
Forewords, readings amusing for certain social classes according to times and the circumstances , by Nikolaus Notabene (1844)
Of the concept of anguish , ( Begrebet Angest ) (1844)
Stages on the way of the life , ( Stadier paa Livets Vei ) (1845)
Guilty? Not culprit? (1845)
history of a passion (1845)
psychological Experiment , by Frater Taciturnus (1845)
final and nonscientific Postscript with the philosophical crumbs by Johannes Climacus, published by Sören Kierkegaard (1846)
a literary report (1846)
Speech building from several points of view (1847)
acts of the love. Some Christian meditations in the form of speech (1847)
Christian Speeches (1848)
Treated despair or the Fatal disease, exposed Christian psychology for the construction and the alarm clock , by Anticlimacus ( Sygdommen til Døden ) (1849)
the lily of the fields and the bird of the sky. Three pious speeches (1849)
Two small treaties éthico-monk (1849)
Sermons on the communion of Friday (1849-1851)
the school of Christianity , by Anticlimacus (1850)
For an examination of conscience, recommended to the contemporaries (1851)
Judge yourself (1851)
On my work of writer (1851)
the moment (1855)
explanatory Point of view of my work of writer (posthumous)
Journal (posthumous)

French editions

"Exercise in christianisme" , Editions of Cat-like, 2006, ISBN 2866456300
" The concept of the Anguish " , Gallimard-pocket, 1977, ISBN 2070353699
" Fear and tremblement" , Payot & Shores, 2000, ISBN 2743605871

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