Happy birthday, Søren Kierkegaard

It is the birthday of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813), whose writings on existence and man’s relationship to life substantially influenced psychology, theology, and Western culture in the mid-20th century after they were translated from the original Danish into major European languages. Kierkegaard argued that although objective facts in existence are important how one relates to those facts are more important. He focused on Christian ethics and how man could become more like God if he would forget distractions like money and focus on belief. He frequently wrote under pseudonymns and took opposing sides of the same question. Among his best known works are Either/Or (1843) and several Upbuilding Discourses (beginning in 1843).