Articles and Features
Soren Kierkegaard's Birthday
May 5, 1813
Week of May 3, 1998
I knew his name because it was the kind of tidbit of information that smart people knew. It was a lot like playing piano or understanding Calculus. Smart people mention Kierkegaard, Sartre and Voltaire. I wanted to be a smart person, so I learned how to pronounce his name correctly, connected it with the concept of existentialism, and went on my merry way, knowing nothing of the man.
Then something happened when I became obsessed with Ayn Rand. I decided that her philosophy of life was the only one that worked for me. All of a sudden, all other philosophies became a source of ridicule and disdain to me. I turned my nose up to Kierkegaard and Sartre (but not Voltaire, who could hate him?). Yet, I still knew less of the man than when I began the journey.
Now, my mind has opened a crack (not the skull, just the mind set). I am now able to learn about the man whose name I dropped like a handkerchief and dropped like a lead weight. Explore the following links and books and make your own decision.
Introduction and quote compilation by Laura S. Moncur, Staff Writer.
- "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
- "Most people are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others, frightfully objective
sometimes--but the task is precisely to be objective toward oneself and subjective toward all others."
- Works of Love
- "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
- "The man who can really stand alone in the world, only taking counsel from his conscience--that man is a
hero."
- The Journals, 1850
- "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced."
- "Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living."
- "I have no single connection with a single other person: I am the most solitary of persons, the (understood in a worldly sense) most powerless."
- The Journals, 1850
- "Prayer does not change God, but changes him who prays."
- "This is all that I've known for certain, that God is love. Even if I have been mistaken on this or that
point: God is nevertheless love."
- The Journals, 1850
Featured Books
The following books and tapes are available through Amazon.com:
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Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard Paperback
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Papers and Journals : A Selection by Soren Kierkegaard Paperback - Many great quotes came from his journals. This book provides a selection of some of his more interesting journal entries.
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Concept of Irony by Soren Kierkegaard Paperback
-
Short Life of Kierkegaard Paperback by J.A. Lowrie, Walter Lowrie - A biography of Soren Kierkegaard. The original publication date of this book was 1942, and they are still printing it today.
For more information about Soren Kierkegaard, try these links:
- The Kierkegaarden - A site which includes a collection of quotations, links to other sites and a detailed biography.
- D. Anthony Storm's Site on Kierkegaard - Another site dedicated to Kierkegaard. Check out the Gallery (includes portraits of him, his family, his tomb, etc.). It takes a little while to download, but is very professionally displayed.
- Kierkegaard - A simple site which includes background information on Existentialism.
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