Kierkegaard as a Thinker of Alienation

Abstract

Alienation is a key theme in both the philosophical tradition of the 19^th century that begins with Hegel and Marx and in the heterogenous school of existentialist thought in the 20^th century. Kierkegaard is often included in narratives of these philosophical traditions, but his contribution to this topic is problematic. Unlike figures such as Marx or Sartre, he almost never uses the term “alienation” explicitly. The question then becomes one of interpretation: what ideas in Kierkegaard bear a meaningful family resemblance to the concept as it is found in other thinkers in these traditions? In this article I have identified three different texts from Kierkegaard in which concepts are discussed that I believe can be rightfully designated as forms of alienation: “The Unhappiest One,” from Either/Or, “The Present Age” from A Literary Review, and the different stages of despair in The Sickness unto Death. The goal is simply to use these texts as the basis or starting point for developing an understanding of Kierkegaard’s concept of alienation. This will then in turn help us to determine more precisely his contribution to the development of philosophy in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.