 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I am very happy to have this chance to give my

presentation. Today, I’m going to talk about Soren Kierkegaard. Before I start it, let’s
have a brainstorm.
 In the twenty-first century, we live in a fast-changing world, the experience of each new
generation is vastly different from the previous one. For example, in the generation of
my parents, nobody had a computer or cellphone, but today, actually everyone has these
things. This constant changing of time make people feel uneasy and insecure.
 Here comes a discussion: How can we solve this problem?
 The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard saw this changes in the 19 th century, and
give his analysis. Please open your text book and turn to page3, paragraph9. Can you
find it? “to be that self which one truly is.” Kierkegaard has a great insight into
modernity.
 Today, we’ll examine the academic interests and theoretical contributions of
Kierkegaard. And then we’ll follow his steps and see the actual places where he lived
and wrote his main publications.
 We’ll first look at Kierkegaard’s early life, family background and education, which has
a great impact on his academic interests. So he’s born in 1813, in Copenhagen, in
Denmark. His father was a Christian and had quite a lot money through running
business. Not only did Kierkegaard inherit his father’s wealth, but also the faith in
Christianity. So Kierkegaard’s central problematic was how to become a Christian in
Christendom. In 1830, he was admitted to the university Copenhagen. It was here that
he first met the figure of Socrates and became interested in him. Socrates used irony to
promote subjectivity in the person he spoke to. Because when people faced Socrates
annoying questions, they have to give up immediate answers and begin to think for
themselves, to take individual responsibility for their claims.

 Kierkegaard imitated Socrates in providing a similar service to his own contemporaries.

He used irony, humor in his academic papers and publications to make the reader "to be
that self which one truly is."

 In 1841, Kierkegaard broke up with his fiancée Gegine and went to Berlin. Hegel had
been a professor of Berlin. From then on, he began to criticize Hegel's theory and
produced his own theory. Let’s move on to the next part: Kierkegaard’s Theoretical
contributions.

 Hegel emphasized rationality, while Kierkegaard valued the persons. In Hegel's

conception of history, the individual is unimportant, it is just an instrument of obedience
to the "absolute spirit." In Kierkegaard's view, Hegel's theory lost the dignity and status of
man as a being. He believed that the existence of human beings themselves was the most
important. People should“Face the facts of being what you are.”
Kierkegaard believed that man's journey to God goes through three stages of knowing his
own existence, which are also three different ways of life. The first stage is Aesthetic, the
second one is Ethic, and the last stage is Religion. It was Kierkegaard's most important
 theoretical contribution. If necessary, you can take marginal notes. Let’s see them one by
one.
 The first stage is the aesthetic stage. People are egoists(利己主义者). Feelings and
emotions dominate life, and people focus on sensuous experience and feel comfortable
with the chaotic, corrupt environment. They don’t pursue beliefs and they don’t follow
principles. So they’re easily dissatisfied. If people are not satisfied for a long time, they
suffer from boredom and disappointing, the disappointment prompts people to pursue
another higher way of life, that is, ethic life. Thus, the first stage jumps to the second
stage, the ethic stage.

 In this stage, people's life is governed by rationality. They restraining desires, combining
personal desires with social obligations, advocating virtues such as goodness, integrity,
and benevolence, advocating ideals, and even willing to make self-sacrifices (like
Socrates). But in the Ethic stage, there are still many contradictions in life. People feel
guilty if they cannot meet the requirements of the law. In Kierkegaard's view, the guilty
reflects an individual's existence. In order to solve the problem of guilt, we cannot only
rely on ethics, but also on repentance(悔悟). Thus, there was a shift from the second stage
to the third stage: religion.

 In this stage, life is governed by faith. In his later writings, he recommended a famous
conception “leap of faith”. As he put it, “To have faith is to lose your mind and to win
God”. Besides, people no longer pursues pleasure in the aesthetic stage, thus getting rid of
the worldly and material things, and no longer advocating the rationality in ethic stage,
thus getting rid of moral principles and obligations. So in this stage, man exists as
himself, like we mentioned earlier: to be that self which one truly is.

 According to Kierkegaard, the three stages are from low to high. Aesthetic is the lowest
one, Ethic is the transitional realm, and religion is the highest one. Only in the religion
stage can people attain true existence. Now, have a discussion with your group for 2
minutes: Which stage do you think we are? Why?

 I think what you said really made sense. However, Kierkegaard doesn’t believe that
everyone's life will go through these three stages. They are just three possibilities for free
choice, and each person's choice can be different. Only a few people can reach the third
stage.

 Can you follow me?

 In the third part, we will briefly review Kierkegaard's life and analyze his main
publications. Well, in his short life span of 43 years, Kierkegaard published 22 books,
three of which are still influential today. Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen in 1813,
admitted to the University of Copenhagen in 1830. In 1840. his marriage proposal was
successful, but he canceled engagement with his fiancée a year later. It led him to one
memorable explosion in “Either’/Or”: “Marry and you will regret it. Don’t marry, you
will also regret it. Marry or don’t marry; you will regret it either way.” In 1843, he
 published the works "Either-Or", "Fear and Trembling", In “either/or” and “fear and
trembling”, what Kierkegaard wants to do is to wake up and give up people’s cozy
sentimental illusions.

 And in 1844, he published "The Concept of Anxiety", the book that fascinated the
existentialists: Our constant anxiety means that unhappiness is more or less written into
the script of life, it’s not possible for anyone to be absolutely, and in every conceivable
way, completely content. As Kierkegaard wrote, “Life can be understood backwards, but
must be lived forwards”. Kierkegaard is often described as the founder of existentialism,
because, in him, we find all the themes that would interest later thinkers.
 In 1855, Kierkegaard died of spinal disease at the age of 43.

• I think Kierkegaard deserves our attention for his understanding of human condition. He can
fully understand the dark places we’re in once the normal abandons us. If you’re interested in
Kierkegaard, and want to learn more about him, I strongly advise you to read this book. It is
available in many reading APPs. Here’s my references. That’s all, thank you.