PHILOSOPHERS - SØREN AABYE KIERKEGAARD

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>SØREN AABYE KIERKEGAARD</FONT><BR> (1813-1855)</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <BLOCKQUOTE>"Truth is subjectivity."<P> ("Either/Or")</BLOCKQUOTE> Danish author, Søren Kierkegaard, was a prolific writer, often publishing under pseudonyms. He rejected all system philosophy, and saw those who clung to doctrine and science as shirking their responsibility of individual choice making. He saw anguish or dread as characteristic of the human condition and many incidents in his life seemed to confirm this. His best known work, "Either/Or ", was written after he had broken off his engagement to Regine Olsen. Part of its aim was to convince her that she was better off without him, but in later works, he speaks bitterly of her engagement to another. A public quarrel with a critic of his work resulted in a series of magazine articles caricaturing his person and forcing him to withdraw from public life. His father, who had become a wealthy wool merchant, lived in fear of divine punishment for having once cursed God in less fortunate days. His fears seemed fulfilled when all but two of his seven children and his wife died within a short period of time before Søren was twenty-one.<P> Søren himself rejected all attempts at a rational justification for Christianity. For him, when the individual is faced with the choice of Christ or the world, the decision is a purely individual one, involving a "leap of faith". His critique of contemporary Christianity, which involved both an attack on the Danish church and a personal attack on a leading churchman, Larsen Martensen, made him unpopular with his fellow countrymen, but his work set the stage for modern <A HREF="../t03/g018.html" TARGET="_top">existentialism</A>. <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>