Sören Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. At seventeen he went to study theology at the University of Copenhagen but spent most of his time reading literature and philosophy, both of which were under the influence of contemporary Hegelian philosophy. He liked the works of Plato and the romantics and though he admire Hegel he found himself deeply critical; upon hearing Schelling's criticisms of Hegel in Berlin, Kierkegaard commented that "If Hegel had written the whole of his Logic and then said ... that it was merely a joke, then he could certainly have been the greatest thinker who ever lived. As it is, he is himself merely a joke." Kierkegaard saw Hegel's rendering of the whole of reality as deeply ironic, in that not only had he failed to capture what Kierkegaard saw as its most important aspect - individual human existence as such - but even went so far as to deny it. Kierkegaard presented his criticisms of Hegel in a brilliant master's thesis, The Concept of Irony. He went on to publish an enormous number of highly original books before his untimely death at age forty-two.

bio by Daniel Kolak in Lovers of Wisdom
(Wadsworth, 1997)