Kierkegaard on the Life-View

This Element traces the emergence, development, and eventual sublation of the concept of life-view in Kierkegaard's authorship. It begins with Kierkegaard's review of Hans Christian Andersen, From the Papers of One Still Living (1838), examining the influence of Heibergian-Hegelian aesthetics, the bildungsroman tradition, and Poul Martin Møller's critique of 'nihilistic' European literature on Kierkegaard's early understanding of the concept. The analysis then considers how, inspired by Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard employs 'life-view' to develop his pseudonymous authorship, leading to the stages of existence in Either/Or (1843) and Stages on Life's Way (1845). Life-view also becomes a crucial term in Kierkegaard's criticism of the daily press and defines good authorship, as Kierkegaard's Literary Review of Gyllembourg's Two Ages and Book on Adler show (1846). In his late authorship, however, Kierkegaard's critique of institutionalised Christianity, his reversal of bildung, and the revision of human agency culminate in a sublation of the concept of life-view.