Soren Kierkegaard — "The true is not the system, but the individual."
The true is not the system, but the individual.
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More from Soren Kierkegaard
"The most common deception is when a person deceives himself; the next most common is when he deceives others; the least common is when he deceives himself into believing that he is deceiving others."
"The greatest good for a human being is to be able to choose himself."
"To be a Christian is not to be a Lutheran or a Calvinist, but to be a Christian."
"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
"Marry, and you will regret it; don't marry, you will also regret it; marry or don't marry, you will regret it either way."
About Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
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.