Soren Kierkegaard : The 3 Ways Of Life ( Existentialism )

Soren Kierkegaard : The 3 Ways Of Life ( Existentialism )

soren kierkegaard is a 19th century danish philosopher and theologian. considered as the father of existentialism, kierkegaard wrote against the dominant philosophy of hegel, and against the state church in denmark. kierkegaard set the stage for modern existentialism. many thinkers and philosophers drew extensively on his analysis of freedom and despair. existentialists such as , martin heidegger , sartre , and karl japsers before them.

kierkegaard used a peculiar authorship and literary style , which is characterized with irony , humor , parody , polemic and dialectical method of indirect communication. the objective of his style was to deepen the reader's passionate subjective engagement with existenstial issues.

socrates and jesus christ were the role models of kierkegaard throughout his life . he saw in their stories , how one lives his life as the prime criterion of being in the truth.

kiekegaard critiqued major figures in western philosophic thought in both of his works , on the concept of irony, of 1841. and , either or , of 1843. he critiqued socrates in the first , and hegel in the second.

in his book , either , or , kierkegaard explored his idea that there are only two ways of life. one which is based on temporal sensory pleasures , whether intellectual or physical , and which kierkegaard called the aesthetic way of living. the second one is the ethical way of life, which is based on moral codes and the infinite or the eternal.
after distinguishing between the two ways , kierkegaard concluded that the radical human freedom of the aesthetic inevitably leads to dread, the call on the infinite, and eventually to despair. once this is realized , the individual may enter the ethical sphere.

his best known book is fear and trembling , of 1843 . this book explores the biblical story of abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son isaac. moving beyond the aesthetic and the ethical ways of life , this story according to kierkegaard introduces a higher way, or a higher stage of life . that third and final stage is the religious. the religious way of life describes the possibility of living by faith.
this book also discusses the philosophy of religion and explores the fundamental issues of ethics , such as faith's relationship with ethics and morality, the nature of god , and the difficulty of being authentically religious.

from 1844 to 1846, kierkegaard wrote on so many topics .
philosophical fragments , of 1844.
the concept of dread , of 1844.
stages on life's way, of 1845.
concluding unscentific postscript to philosophical fragments , of 1846 , in which he critiqued the perceived shortcomings of hegel's philosophy.

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