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CHAPTER 14
THE EXISTENTIALIST: SØREN KIERKEGAARD
Chapter 14 Key Concepts
Existentialism addresses fundamental questions of
meaning and choice as they affect individuals. Existential
themes include choice, freedom, identity, alienation,
inauthenticity, despair, and awareness of our own mortality.
Søren Kierkegaard claimed that truth is subjectivity and
the crowd is untruth. He rejected the view that science and
For Kierkegaard, the most important issue facing any
individual is how to relate to God. He criticized efforts to
reduce that relationship to a performance contract and
rejected as false Christianity all efforts to objectify faith or
base belief on facts (science).
According to Kierkegaard, no amount of factual
(objective) knowledge or logical precision can overcome two
Kierkegaard criticized what he saw as the inflated
reputation of science and the massing of society, each of
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According to Kierkegaard, we exist only when we
appropriate our beliefs by taking them up subjectively and
Rather than proofs, Kierkegaard presents a series of
edifying sketches and discourses describing three stages on
life s way. In ascending order, they are the aesthetic, ethical,
and religious stages. The aesthetic stage is a futile fight
against boredom characterized by the pursuit of pleasure,
Chapter 14 Teaching Tips
1. Discuss the widespread belief that faith is a kind of
contract with God, susceptible to a universal formula of
the sort Kierkegaard thought he identified in the story of
2. Discuss whether or not objectivity is possible in regard to
philosophical principles and moral values. Is it desirable?
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3. Take some time to discuss Kierkegaard s use of
pseudonyms. Concentrate on the specific names he chooses.
What s their significance? What s in a name? (pages 395
4. Read Kierkegaard s characterization of his era to the class
(pages 401 and 402) and have students compare Kierkegaard s
descriptions to the present era. Is ours an era of
inauthenticity? Does the tone of an era matter to the existing
individual?
5. Use the For Deeper Consideration on page 401 to raise the
possibility that we have diluted the notion of passion
6. Here is a variant of tip 5 that also works well with the
photos on pages 392 and 400: Today we use the term passion
loosely. We talk of finding, honoring, and following our
passion when we discuss career choices, marriages,
divorces, all sorts of things. Does this common, contemporary
notion mean what Kierkegaard meant when he said it is
impossible to exist without passion ? Could it be that we ve
somehow found a way to use passion as a substitute for
authentic existence?
7. Students are often eager to apply new concepts to their
own lives. Encourage your students to apply the stages on
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8. It is always interesting and often exciting (to use an
overused word) to apply a Kierkegaardian existential analysis
to what it means, or might mean, to be a Christian or
Muslim or Jew or Buddhist or environmentalist or vegan. Is it