In Association With:

Existentialism arguably begins with the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who viciously rejected the comfortable and undemanding Christianity of 19th century Europe and insisted on the ultimate responsibility of the individual to confront the ‘Dread’, ‘Angst’, and ‘Despair’ that accompanies the knowledge that we are both free to act, but ultimately and entirely responsible to God for our actions. This attempt to reconcile the needs of the self with the fact of freedom and the often unhappy course of life – and the recognition that nothing other than the individual’s own self-resource was available for this attempt – would prove decisive for the course of the development of existentialism, and philosophy more broadly.