Hello and welcome to Buddhism!

Just kidding, we're doing existentialism. It's Buddhism but without the happiness.

Sarenkirkagard was born in 1813 and died in 1855.

He was a man who did not consider himself a philosopher but rather a poet.

He showed disdain to the rigid academic systems that theology

and philosophy were producing during his time, and his writings were often in complete

opposition to their way of thinking. For Kirkagard, the importance of philosophy lay with

self-discovery, developing into a true, authentic self. A quote from Kerkar presents this view.

What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I must know. What

matters is to find a purpose, to find a truth that is true for me, and to find the idea for

which I am willing to live and die. This is what my soul thirst for as the African desert thirst for water.

The importance is truth of subject. A person is a subject, not an object. Therefore, when considering the question of how one ought to live, we cannot simply rely on an all-encompassing logical theory, such as the Hegelian system presented to Kerkigard.

Kerkigard challenges the individual to think for themselves, to take ownership of their

own choice and to continuously strive towards being a true self.

For Kerkigard he dedicated himself to a life of faith.

However, not in the same way that many Danish people during his time would have recognized.

He famously attacked the Danish church in his later writings for not holding Christianity

to the standard that Jesus required.

Before he died, he rejected Mass from a priest requesting that it be done by a layperson.

This request was declined.

At his funeral, large crowds gathered, many who were there to protest the fact he was being buried at the official church.

It was seen as an insult to the man who opposed their way of life.

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