The opposite of despair, Kierkegaard argues through a pseudonym representing the Christian ideal—what allows people to reject it, for good, once they’ve recognized it—is faith in God.

As Eagan describes, the aesthete in Kierkegaard’s volume is obsessed with finding deeper and deeper interpretations of the human condition, until he reaches a point of despair.

Kierkegaard calls this the illusion of “crop rotation,” the idea that changing the soil frequently can save us from boredom and despair. But what really drives such moods is not the need for ...

Kierkegaard’s stages do not need to correspond to specific chronological ages. You can put his ideas to use no matter where you are in your life’s journey.

Søren Kierkegaard’s theory of despair. In The Sickness Unto Death, the Danish philosopher posed a difficult question: Is despair an essential feature of human life? You’ve probably had the ...

Søren Kierkegaard’s theory of despair. Melancholy, Edvard Munch, 1895.(Universal History Archive / Getty) You’ve probably had the experience—perhaps while listening to music, seeing an old ...

In that last book, which appeared in 1849, Kierkegaard offers an uncompromising diagnosis of the human condition. “There is not a single human being who does not despair at least a little, in ...

For Søren Kierkegaard, that visceral sense of mortality we get after experiencing grief he labelled“despair.” And in the long nighttime of despair, we can begin the journey to realize our ...