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Philosophical Haiku

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

by Terence Green

Laughter masks despair
Reason crucified by faith
We must ourselves choose.

Kierkegaard is seen today as one of the founders of existentialism, with its emphasis on the need to choose for oneself how to find meaning in this godless life. But existentialism of this kind is not exactly what Kierkegaard had in mind. Over the course of his short life, and writing under a bewildering range of pseudonyms (which helpfully allowed him to criticise his own works later on), he knitted together the disparate skeins of moral psychology and Christian theology to form an elaborate garment quite unlike anything seen before (and not necessarily one you’d want to wear out of the house).

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