Salt Lake Philosophy Club

Having finished up with Jaspers' "Way to Wisdom", we turn now to Jaspers' avowed forerunner and great inspiration: Søren Kierkegaard, often considered the father of existentialism.

Though existentialism in its later form is typically associated with the human struggle for meaning against a godless, absurd cosmos, many of the origins of this philosophical movement trace back (as so often) to religious controversy.

Kierkegaard is a case in point. Raised by a devout and strict Christian father, he wrangled with the implications of this childhood faith throughout his brief life. Put very roughly, his oeuvre is occupied with reconciling older ideals of faith, divinity, and transcendent value with the modern "age of despair": bourgeois individualism and the ever-shifting frame of social and technical progress. The conflict between the infinitude and finitude found in every self also takes center stage.

The paradoxical result of this collision is sometimes called "Christian existentialism"--but it involves a radical, intensely personalized re-working of Christianity, while opening the way for more "typical", secular existentialists like Camus, Sartre, Heidegger... and Jaspers.

Of Kierkegaard's shorter works, "The Sickness Unto Death" (TSUD) is often cited as one of the best introductions to his thought. Written in just 2 months in the spring of 1848, TSUD presents a striking interpretation of the notion of sin: sin is in fact despair, a failure to realize the self and the love & faith that sustain it.

A PDF of TSUD can be found here: (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17uglTcfszovzAPAUV1fwyy0a5KjutWC4). Let's continue by reading from "In Despair to Will to Be Oneself: Defiance" up to the "Appendix to A" (p. 67-100 in the linked text). Good luck!