Danish · 1813–1855
Kierkegaard invented existentialism by insisting that truth is subjective, that philosophy must address concrete individual existence, and that the highest life requires a leap of faith. A wealthy bachelor who never needed employment, he spent his short life in Copenhagen, writing prolifically under pseudonyms that embodied different life-views: the aesthetic, the ethical, the religious. His broken engagement to Regine Olsen—which he considered a sacrifice—haunted his work. Fear and Trembling asks whether Abraham was a murderer or a knight of faith; Either/Or presents aesthetic and ethical existence as irreconcilable choices. Dismissed in his lifetime, he influenced Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, and modern theology.