Soren Kierkegaard — "Purity of heart is to will one thing."
Purity of heart is to will one thing.
Purity of heart is to will one thing.
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"The highest stage a man can reach is that of being a paradox."
"The greatest hazard of all, losing one's self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all."
"The crowd is untruth."
"The absurd is the essential factor in faith."
"What a misfortune to be a woman! And yet, the worst misfortune is not to understand what a misfortune it is."
Danish philosopher and theologian considered the founder of existentialism; Either/Or (1843) and Fear and Trembling (1843) explored the leap of faith. Closely associated with Friedrich Nietzsche (his existentialist successor working in the opposite theological direction) and Fyodor Dostoevsky (literary parallel exploring faith-and-despair). For an intellectual contrast, see G.W.F. Hegel, German Idealist of the totalizing system — Kierkegaard called Hegel's system a 'palatial residence' that nobody could actually live in — his entire authorship is structured against Hegelian abstraction in favor of the existing individual's inwardness.
The standard scholarly entry points to Soren Kierkegaard's work: Joakim Garff (University of Copenhagen, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre) — Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography (2000); Walter Lowrie (Princeton, his major postwar English translator) — A Short Life of Kierkegaard (1942); C. Stephen Evans (Baylor University, philosophy of religion) — Kierkegaard: An Introduction (2009). These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Soren Kierkegaard.
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