Søren Kierkegaard (jan 1, 1813 – jan 1, 1855)

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Influenced by Lessing, Kant, Schleiermacher, and Hegel.
Argued that pure reason cannot prove or disprove God's existence but only faith. Greatly opposed Christendom which neglected the counting of the cost and constant risk of faith.

Existentialist: Concerned with the inward mind where truth is manifest in subjectivity. Not concerned with objective truth per se. Self is the starting point for all truth.

Three stages of life:
Aesthetic stage: give self up to pleasure.
Ethical stage: Serving others, moral life.
Religious stage: Giving self completely to God. Requires total abandonment of reason and objective truth, the leap of faith (the leap across Lessing's ditch of history). Radical Fideist.

Object of faith is not the issue, so long as you take a leap of faith. Faith is opposed to and superior to reason.

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