Kierkegaard has occasional witty, funny, or insightful passages in his books. But overall I found him to be really incoherent, and to ramble way too much in super long digressions about subjects that seem to have little to do with the theme he's trying to write about. So his writing winds up being all over the place and chaotic, making it hard to figure out what the bleep he's trying to say. It's really frustrating, and it seems that mostly he's not saying much, but just rambling.
For his major work "Either/Or" it can seem this way. If you understand his thesis that conscious life is a series of choices. Choice of action is what creates an individual. You choose how you live and exist. He wrote "Either/Or" as a refutation of contemporary logical thought, which he felt robbed the individual of the consequences of choice. He also had a bone to pick with organized religion (mostly Christianity).
Along with Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard is one of my favorite philosophers.
I love Kierkegaard and I agree that it can be really hard to figure out what he is trying to say. I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much from his writing if it wasn't for supplementary material.
> really incoherent, and to ramble way too much in super long digressions about subjects that seem to have little to do with the theme he's trying to write about. So his writing winds up being all over the place and chaotic, making it hard to figure out what the bleep he's trying to say.
"Once again a long time has gone by in which I have not been able to concentrate on the slightest thing -- I will now try to get started again"
"Eternal child"
It strikes me that Kierkegaard had ADD as discussed here goo.gl/otcRc6
A little tongue-in cheek, but could Existentialism ≈ ADD
Existential angst may not entirely derive from "a negative feeling arising from the experience of human freedom and responsibility" but could be the call of the real world to a distracted soul.
Can explain a few other things:
Camus' car crash
Sartre sending his Nobel rejection letter too late for the decision
Litres of coffee consumed and cartons of Gauloise smoked
