Søren Kierkegaard
Danish philosopher widely considered the first existentialist, who put concrete human life above abstract thought Show bio
Bio
Soren Kierkegaard made such satirical remarks as a boy that his father nicknamed him "the Fork." He discovered Socrates in Plato's dialogues, and the encounter shaped his love of irony.
Kierkegaard studied theology but wanted to know "what am I to do," not what to know. He wrote his early books under pen names, each voicing its own viewpoint. Kierkegaard signed his religious discourses himself and dedicated them to "the single individual."
He wrote in Danish, and at first he was read only in Scandinavia. Kierkegaard had addressed that single individual, yet his thought came to shape Western philosophy and theology.