ABSTRACT

Soren Aabye Kierkegaard was born on May 5, 1813, in Copenhagen, the city where he would spend almost all of his life. In 1794 he married the sister of a business connection, Kirstine Nielsdatter Royen. Kierkegaard’s writings after Concluding Unscientific Postscript were marked by expanding interest in, and commentary on, the social-political climate in Denmark, including the role of the church in secular society. A wide range of Kierkegaard scholars from around the world and from various disciplinary backgrounds have been assembled to cover the full sweep of Kierkegaard’s thought. Kierkegaard’s methodology is at once captivating and elusive. The use of different names, or pseudonyms, in many writings makes it difficult to know Kierkegaard’s own position. Kierkegaard has views on aesthetics in the academic sense of questions about art, beauty, sensory experience, and enjoyment of nature. Kierkegaard also addresses aesthetic value in terms of what is pleasing to the senses.