Kierkegaard coined existential thought as concerning the problems of human existence

Evidence

Søren Kierkegaard, born in Copenhagen in 1813, set the tone by using ‘existential’ in a new way to denote thought concerning the problems of human existence. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 57

Categorization

• DEFINE: Orients the reader to the movement by tracing the term ‘existential’ to its Kierkegaardian root meaning.
• XREF: connects to: Nietzsche and Kierkegaard founded existentialism as lived philosophy of choice and anguish — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 66; Kierkegaard inverted Descartes so that existence precedes thought — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 59; Nietzsche and Kierkegaard defined existence as choice, action and self-assertion (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Nietzsche and Kierkegaard founded existentialism as lived philosophy of choice and anguish #corroborates (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 66
• Kierkegaard inverted Descartes so that existence precedes thought #expands (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 59
• Nietzsche and Kierkegaard defined existence as choice, action and self-assertion #corroborates (0.75)
• Existentialism is by nature applied to real individual lives #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 687
• Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience #corroborates (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 54
• Existentialists share the belief that existence precedes essence #corroborates (0.72) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 7