søren kierkegaard philosophy revolves around the idea of existentialism, or as others would say existential philosophy, where individuals find meaning in their life through a leap of faith. Soren Kierkegaard philosophy or brand of existentialism is first and foremost a reaction to Hegel speculative philosophy. As is well known in Hegel system what matters is the realization of the absolute in which the individual is merely subsumed in the entire process of the development of reason. In other words as we can see in Hegel seminal work the phenomenology of spirit in the development of Reason everything that happens is just a necessary part of history and individuals do not play an active role in it. in Kierkegaard’s interpretation the individual’s existence is being left out and reduced to passivity. in this process as Kierkegaard sees it the individual is unfree. her life becomes meaningless as opposed to Hegel.

what matters to Kierkegaard is concrete existence. it is important to note that the term existence for Kierkegaard is proper only to human beings in fact in existentialism other entities such as plants and animals do not exist they only live. this explains why for Kierkegaard to exist means to strive to consider alternatives to choose decided most of all to commit as we can see virtually all of this as Kierkegaard may have argued is not captured in Hegel system. this is precisely the reason why Kierkegaard rejected the system building approach of Hegel and argued instead that the quest for truth involves personal choice grounded in religious faith. Kierkegaard also shared the conviction of the major philosophers reacting against Kant, Hegel and the rest of the German idealist that the 19thcentury European culture was terribly dysfunctional. furthermore, Kierkegaard also shared the argument that the individual will come to proper understanding of human existence and society only when she radically breaks from the prevailing cultural attitudes. how can the individual truly exist or in what way can she attain authentic or meaningful existence? according to Kierkegaard authentic existence is attained when the individual realizes herself through the choice between alternatives and the subsequent self-commitment. but how is self-realization possible according to Kierkegaard self-realization can be attained through the three stages of life namely aesthetic stage ethical stage and religious stage. these three stages of life which Kierkegaard calls stages of life involve a process whereby the true self or authentic existence is actualized in the form of individuality. now let us see the three stages of life according to Kierkegaard.

According to Kierkegaard the aesthetic stage is ruled by passion. It is indeed the realm of sensory experience and pleasure. As we can see the aesthetic life for Kierkegaard is characterized by pleasure. If one wants to live the aesthetic life, one must maximize pleasure. The main goal of the aesthetic stage therefore is to satisfy one's desires. hedonism is a perfect example of this stage because the person in this stage is driven by desires only. according to Kierkegaard’s philosophy she is not truly free even if she gets what she wants such as food drink sex and the like. still her life remains empty as her desires can never be fully satisfied. she needs more food more drinks more sex. Kierkegaard acknowledges the importance of the aesthetic life as a human flesh we need to satisfy our physiological needs however because this stage lacks commitment to ideals the aesthetic life will necessarily resulting boredom. self-boredom according to Kierkegaard is like a poison that flows through the veins of each individual whether poor or rich. no one escapes this psychic emotional state. boredom therefore plays an important role in Kierkegaard's philosophy this is because through boredom the individual realizes that her desires can never be fully satisfied. thus she must change now according to Kierkegaard when the individual experiences this situation she is faced with a choice that is either she remains in the pursuit of sensual pleasures or to seek higher forms of pleasures .

In ethical stages the individuals commit herself to the moral ideals of the society. here unlike the aesthetic stage the individual considers her actions will have effect on others and gives more emphasis on promoting social justice and equality. for Kierkegaard the primary goal of this stage is to live according to ethical standards that is to become an ethical person. thus the individual who lives in this stage takes responsibility of herself including her choices and actions and seeks to become what she ought to be. for this reason the individual seeks to fulfill her duties and responsibilities related to her work to her fellow men and the society as whole. in the ethical stage the self is no longer the center of everything as it was in the aesthetic stage it is also in the ethical stage that the idea of sacrifice is introduced. there is a problem here Kierkegaard thought that the ethical individual will eventually reflect and realize that she does not always do what she ought to do in fact no one does according to Kierkegaard this eventually leads to the experience of guilt and despair.

The experience of guilt and despair shows that the individual needs further change and this necessary wants to attain true fulfillment or meaningful existence. as we can see the individual cannot find real satisfaction in the ethical stage. in other words, one cannot find a meaningful existence in the ethical stage. in response to this according to Kierkegaard the individual can either simply try harder to do the right thing that is to be an ethical person or move to the third and final stage through a leap of faith. according to Kierkegaard as already mentioned earlier we cannot find true fulfillment in the ethical stage no matter how hard we try to be righteous. we always end up doing the wrong thing. thus again we inevitably experience guilt and despair. we know that the individual eventually becomes aware that she indeed cannot always do the right thing but what is important in the ethical stage is that she accepts the fact that not doing the right thing is part of the nature of men . we always commit mistakes . we always commit sin . for Kierkegaard it is only religion that can offer the possibility of a true fulfillment of a meaningful or authentic existence. this is because for Kierkegaard it is only God’s forgiveness that can eradicate guilt and despair. it must be noted however that the religious stage is not simply an alternative of the ethical. in fact the ethical and religious stages may even be incompatible for example as to the demands of morality the famous God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac is a typical example issued without apparent justification or reason this command goes against both the natural emotional ties of parental love and the basic moral principle of any conceivable human society in its absoluteness and unconditional laity. god’s commands mark the strict separation of the religious and the ethical spheres. as we can see Abraham has faith and act to obey god's will but, in the end, he is not required to sacrifice his son. for Kierkegaard then we must believe even though faith violates human rationality, nature and morality. this is because for Kierkegaard a faith which conforms to moral intuition does not have any significance thus it is the absurdity of religion that proves its unique value but why should man believe in what they find as irrational and immoral. this is exactly what Kierkegaard calls a leap of faith which happens only when a choice in favor of faith has been made Kierkegaard however emphasized that this choice or act of choosing must be based on self-conscious and authentic decision rather than the effect of conformism. this is Kierkegaard calls inwardness or truth as subjectivity when one becomes more of an individual through conscious choices. full awareness before God finally their religious stage is where the individual finds true fulfillment and attains an authentic or meaningful existence and in Kierkegaard’s philosophy this is made possible through leap of faith.