Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kafka were all outsiders in their societies, unable to fit into the accepted nineteenth-century categories of theology, philosophy, or belles lettres.

Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kafka were all outsiders in their societies, unable to fit into the accepted nineteenth-century categories of theology, philosophy, or belles lettres. This chapter examines the similarities in the views of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche about faith in the providence.

Instead, they saw themselves both as the end products of a dying civilization and as prophets of the coming chaos of the twentieth century. Kierkegaard was devout while Nietzsche was a blasphemous atheist. Both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche value the subject and largely reject metaphysics, which is where they intersect ontologically. Nietzsche believes convictions should be like habitsŠa temporary mechanism that can be discarded when no longer needed. Kierkegaard’s position against universals bears resemblance to Nietzsche’s position of perspectivism – that there are many different interpretations, and different perspectives, of a particular truth. Nietzsche believes convictions should be like habitsŠa temporary mechanism that can be

The respective approaches of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre are considered in more detail on some of our other pages. Existentialism (/ ˌ ɛ ɡ z ɪ ˈ s t ɛ n ʃ əl ɪ z əm / or / ˌ ɛ k s ə ˈ s t ɛ n t ʃ ə ˌ l ɪ z əm /) is a tradition of philosophical enquiry that takes as its starting point the experience of the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are widely regarded as the two greatest thinkers of the 19th century. In 1879 Georg Brandes published in German his By the end of Nietzsche’s life, it is true, Kierkegaard was becoming known in Germany.

Kierkegaard’s emphasis on the paradox of faith and on existence creates the basis for his conclusion.

Known as the fathers of the existentialist movement, these two philosophers have revolutionized the way we see the world. to Nietzsche, Kierkegaard™s views stunt personal growth and stand in opposition to the will to power.

Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe. Instead, they saw themselves both as the end products of a dying civilization and as prophets of the The purpose of the essay, as Hubben states it in the introduction, is to consider these authors "as spiritual relatives against the background of a formerly self-assured society which … to Nietzsche, Kierkegaard™s views stunt personal growth and stand in opposition to the will to power.

Kierkegaard vs. Nietzsche Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are known to be two of the greatest nineteenth century existentialists of all time. Nietzsche’s existentialism had many of the same beliefs as Kierkegaard’s such as – both believed that philosophy should be based on the value of people’s beliefs and that people had to find their own way in life and decide for themselves what the meanings of life and existence are (Cline, 2011). Kierkegaard and Nietzsche differed radically, most famously in their approach to religion (Christianity in particular). Human nature needs variety. Nor did Nietzsche read Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche of course never met and never could have met: Nietzsche was a boy eleven years old growing up in Naumburg in the east of Germany when Kierkegaard died in his native Copenhagen in 1855. Kierkegaards™s philosophy clings to an idea beyond its range of usefulness, inhibiting the individual™s potential. The most promising resolution of the problem of nihilism in fact comes from Soren Kierkegaard, who is able to respond to Nietzsche’s challenges, as well as solve the issues inherent in the Hegelian solution.

_Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Kafka_ is primarily a comparative study of four kindred spirits. They were problem thinkers who chose not to follow the systematic approach to philosophy as their predecessors did.


The fashion for Existentialism after the Second World War saw its influence pervading widely and deeply into journalism, poetry, the playhouse, and the cinema. Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche both felt that life is irrational.

But so, too, twentieth-century existentialism would include both religious and atheistic philosophers. This chapter examines the similarities in the views of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche about faith in the providence. Kierkegaards™s philosophy clings to an idea beyond its range of usefulness, inhibiting the individual™s potential.

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche "It is a fundamental truth of human nature that man is incapable of remaining permanently on the heights, of continuing to admire anything. Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Jaspers write of many important issues concerning our existence and society in general, but the one that interests me the most is the belief in the ignorance and stupidity of the majority of the human race.