Introducing Kierkegaard: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides)

by Dave Robinson

For Kierkegaard, discovering the “truth” is not just about finding out how things are. It’s more a matter of making a commitment and taking specific kinds of action. Philosophy has to be more than just a calm search for objective truth.

Living is not an activity that can be “mediated” by some ongoing dialectic.

So it is not possible to wait until afterwards and subject it to analysis and synthesis.

Kierkegaard saw that most people were content to be absorbed into the everyday world of marriage, career and respectability. Most people follow the normal practices of their society. If the society is Christian, then they go to church. If it is communist, then they dutifully attend party meetings. That doesn’t make them hypocrites, because they have probably never thought of questioning the social and economic pressures that govern their daily thoughts.

They are contented members of the “public” but lack any real personal freedom, because they have allowed others to decide how they should live.

Kierkegaard was the first philosopher to recognize that in our modern age many people experience feelings of “anxiety” for reasons not easy to comprehend.

Either/Or is the book to read first. It’s a stimulating and enjoyable introduction to the strange world of Kierkegaard.