Kierkegaard

- The first Existentialist

- The Sickness Unto Death - Similar to Schopenheaur, rejects rationalism and objectivity of the scientific movement (Shcop - World as Will and Representation)

       - Christianity - Either Or - Despite being a devout Christian, Kierkegaard rejects religion, "To be a Christian you must reject Christianity." If everyone was a Christian it would be impossible to be a Christian.

       - Christ - Likes the loneliness and eternal suffering, refers to this as the human condition. Starting point of knowledge is despair, an existential fear or angst, unknowing.

       -Despair is the Sickness Unto Death. You'll never be cured of it, it is an ontological fact, it is the phenomena of being. Life is despair. Similar to Shcopenhaeur's  "Life is suffering"

       - Starting point of wisdom is looking up to despair and trying to transcend it. Can only do this by having passionate commitment from one moment to the next. K's commitment is to Christ, needs an irrational surrender to Christ.

       - Despair is not an objective fact, it is subjective, it is exclusively contained within yourself. Each has to deal, individually, with the sense of despair.

       - Angst - Unease / Unhappiness in relation to life

       - Despair is caused by not knowing the purpose of your existence

       - Alienation is separation from god, trying to get back in to the garden of Eden. Despair is the sense of this.

       - Despair is not a defect in the human condition, it IS the human condition. To remove despair would be to remove humanity.

       - Dismisses systems of good and morality in favour of inexplainable and irrational subjectivity.