No tariffs. Ever. We ship locally from the US, Canada, the UK, or the EU + Free shipping over $80 / 70€ / £60 (equivalent in all other currencies).
The Philosopher's Shirt

Soeren Kierkegaard Portrait

Kierkegaard wrote about anxiety, despair and faith under a stack of pseudonyms, and died at forty-two having spent his inheritance printing his own books.

For readers who want the man rather than the punchline. Available across tees, sweatshirts, hoodies and mugs, printed to order. An existentialist gift for Kierkegaard readers. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. He would know.

Questions about this design

What does the Soeren Kierkegaard Portrait design show?
A black-and-white portrait of Søren Kierkegaard in the style of a nineteenth-century engraving – the tall swept-up hair, high collar and cravat – above his first name, SØREN, in classic serif capitals. No pun, no punchline – a serious tribute for readers who want the man rather than the meme.
Who was Søren Kierkegaard?
A Danish philosopher, theologian and writer (1813–1855) from Copenhagen. He wrote on anxiety, despair, faith and what it means to become an individual, and attacked both Hegel's system and the comfortable state church of his day. He died at forty-two, having spent much of his inheritance publishing his own books.
How do you pronounce Kierkegaard, and what does the name mean?
In Danish it sounds roughly like KEER-keh-gor, with a soft ending; English speakers usually say KEER-kuh-gard. The name means churchyard – modern Danish kirkegård – a fittingly gloomy surname for the thinker of anxiety and despair. Søren is the Danish form of Severin.
Why is Kierkegaard called the father of existentialism?
Because he put the existing individual at the centre of philosophy – the person who must choose, commit and live with uncertainty, rather than an abstract system. Twentieth-century thinkers such as Heidegger, Jaspers, Sartre and Camus took up his themes of anxiety, choice and authenticity, though Kierkegaard himself wrote as a Christian.
What does anxiety is the dizziness of freedom mean?
The line comes from The Concept of Anxiety (1844), published under the pseudonym Vigilius Haufniensis. Kierkegaard compares anxiety to looking down into a yawning abyss – the dizziness comes as much from your own eye as from the depth. Facing open possibility, freedom looks at itself and reels. Anxiety is the price and the sign of being free.
What did Kierkegaard say about despair?
In The Sickness unto Death (1849), written as Anti-Climacus, despair is a misrelation in the self – not wanting to be oneself, or desperately wanting to be a self of one's own making. Its worst form is not knowing one is in despair at all. The cure, for Kierkegaard, is for the self to rest transparently in the power that established it.
Why did Kierkegaard write under pseudonyms?
To practise indirect communication. Works like Either/Or (1843, Victor Eremita) and Fear and Trembling (1843, Johannes de Silentio) present ways of life from the inside, so readers must judge for themselves rather than simply adopt the author's view. Kierkegaard asked that quotes from these books be attributed to the pseudonyms, not to him.
Who was Regine Olsen?
The young woman Kierkegaard got engaged to in 1840 and, to everyone's shock, broke off with in 1841. He never married and wrote about her, directly and indirectly, for the rest of his life; she married Johan Frederik Schlegel, later a colonial governor. The broken engagement shadows Either/Or, Fear and Trembling and Repetition.
What are Kierkegaard's three stages of existence?
The aesthetic, lived for pleasure and interest and haunted by boredom; the ethical, defined by commitment, duty and choosing oneself; and the religious, a personal relation to God that may require a leap beyond ethics. He develops them in Either/Or (1843) and Stages on Life's Way (1845).
Who is the Soeren Kierkegaard Portrait design a good gift for?
For philosophy and theology students, readers of existentialism, Danophiles and anyone who has stared too long into their own possibilities. The portrait comes as a T-shirt, sweatshirt, premium hoodie, mug and sticker.