is the thing that constitutes the thorn in the problem of knowledge.
What is thus true of scientific thought is even more so in the reflections on the problems of practical life. In this case it is personal truth that takes first rank, i. e. the important matter to be considered here is the fact that the individual has acquired his characteristic ideas by his own efforts, and that they constitute an actual expression of his personality. Subjectivity constitutes the truth. Whoever prays to an idol with his whole heart and soul, prays to the true God, whilst he who prays to the true God from mere force of habit and without having his heart in it, is really worshipping an idol. Kierkegaard shows his romanticism in the fact that he sharply contrasts the heart with life as it is actually experienced and entirely disregards intellectual integrity, which is an essential condition, if personal truth is to escape identification with blindness.
Kierkegaard outlined a kind of comparative theory of life—partly in poetic form (Entweder—Oder; Stadien auf dem Lebensweg), partly in philosophical form (in his chief philosophical treatise mentioned above). He distinguishes various "Stadia," which however do not constitute stages in a continuous line of evolution, but sharply severed types. The transition from the one to the other does not follow with logical necessity, nor by means of an evolution explainable by psychological processes, but by a leap, an inexplicable act of will. Kierkegaard maintains the qualitative antitheses of life in sharp contrast to the quantitative continuity of the speculative systems.
According to Kierkegaard the principle of evaluation and construction of theories of life consists in the degree of
