Søren Kierkegaard

William McDonald (University of New England)
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According to Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Søren Kierkegaard was by far the greatest thinker of the nineteenth century. Kierkegaard was a saint”. His work has inspired philosophers, theologians, novelists, poets, playwrights and psychologists. He is one of the great maverick thinkers, along with Socrates, Hamann, Lessing, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. He is known as the father of existentialism and as a trenchant critic of Hegel. More importantly he is one of the most astute observers and critics of emerging modernism, who contributed more than almost any other thinker of his era to the development of modernism as a self-conscious reflection on the present age. Most importantly, for Kierkegaard himself, is his concern to question what it is to be a Christian in Christendom. He characterized…

3695 words

Citation: McDonald, William. "Søren Kierkegaard". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2491, accessed 28 March 2024.]

2491 Søren Kierkegaard 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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