At the origins of modern existential anthropology: “Dialectic of personal being” by Søren Kierkegaard

The aim of the paper is to analyse the “dialectic of personal being” in the emerging philosophical anthropology of Søren Kierkegaard. The article considers the stages of the development of existential dialectics in the concept of the outstanding Danish thinker. Special attention is paid to existentia and its modus operandi (fear, despair, faith) as stages of spiritual ascent of an individual to God. Scientific novelty is connected with the substantiation of the dialectical interrelation of existentials in Kierkegaard’s doctrine, the realisation of which occurs through existentials as aspiration into the depths of the human soul and transcendence as aspiration to the Absolute. As a result, it is established that Kierkegaard’s “dialectic of personal being” finds the source of existence and development of a person within him/herself, in the contradictory interrelations of existentials. From the experience and realisation of despair, anxiety, fear and death to the overcoming of loneliness and the affirmation of faith and love – this is the main vector of existential dialectics. Despair, fear and death, as well as faith, hope and love, are dialectically related to each other.