Soren Kierkegaard Research Paper

Soren Kierkegaard was born on May 5th, 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark and died on November 11th, 1855 in Copenhagen. He was a Danish philosopher and theologian who was often viewed as the father of existentialism. He was the seventh and last child of Ane Sørensdatter Lund and Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard. His father had worked himself up to become a businessperson after coming from a background of poverty and slavery, while his mother was the maid of Michael's first wife. One of the factor that highlighted his philosophical influence was when he challenged to neat systems of philosophical though, such as presented by Hegel. He criticized philosophers such as Hegel, Fichte, Goethe, Schelling, Schlegel, Swedenbord and was involved in a public discussion …show more content…
He really understood the limitations of logic and reason. An example is whether or not we should take the dream job across the country or stay in our hometown where our family and friends are. Kierkegaard states that there are no logical solutions to questions like these. The questions that are important for humans can only be understood from either personal experience or "subjective truth." However, Kierkegaard does not say that we need to abandon logic or reason, only the fact that we need to understand that they have their own limits, and if human wants to reach those limits, they need to decide what they value the …show more content…
In every point of your life, you have the opportunity to choose. When you are choosing you have to take the lead of faith. In everyday life you individuals are confronted with a variety of choices, which we all need to act on. You want to be your own human being, and it is therefore no teleological plan in life. Every time a human makes a choice they are faced with even more choices along the way. Individuals are a collection of all of those choices you have made in the past. With that being said, you are a history of your choices. Kierkegaard introduces some of his most enduring, proactive and influential concepts such as fear and trembling, choice, and the leap of faith in his retelling of the biblical parable. The way he used the parable underlines the horrible and tragic choice Abraham is faced with: disobey god or kill his son. When Abraham is making this choice, he is unable to use reason or common sense. He is left alone but has no other choice than deciding what he wants to do. His only option is to act with a leap of faith because there is no recipe on how to make a choice like that. By doing so, he will be rewarded.
Kierkegaard stated that there are roughly three stages of human existence: The Aesthetic, the Ethical, and the Religious (Lee, 2013). The three stages of human existence are not systematically worked out, but he reveals them with some of his best insights into human existence through letters, stories, analyses