"Philosophical Fragments" by Soren Kierkergaard,1844

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Men can be separated into three groups,depending on the values they hold :
a.the aesthetes want entertainment,pleasure,and freedom from boredom ;
b.ethical men live for the sake of duty,taking on obligations in order to be bound to discharge them ; and
c.the religious men live in order to obey God.
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The Socratic idea of religious truth is :
a.that truth in religious matters is not unique,
b.that one learns religious truths by recollection of what one has learned in the realm of Ideas.
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The alternative position (the Christian view) is :
a.that God in time (Jesus Christ) is the teacher of men,
b.that faith is an organ of knowing,
c.that knowledge comes through the consciousness of sin,and
d.that in a moment of decision a man's life can be changed.
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Either,Or

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The aesthetic mode of existence is exemplified

by both romantic hedonism and abstract intellectualism ;

both the sensualist and the intellectual fail to commit

themselves decisively and thereby to achieve existence

and selfhood.

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Only through choise is authentic selfhood attained ;

life is a matter of either/or.

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The aesthetical way leads to boredom,melancholy,

and despair.

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In turning towards decision and commitment because of despair ;

the self passes from the aesthetical stage to the ethical.

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In the ethical stage,

in virtue of having chosen itself,

the self becomes centralized,

unified,

and authentic.

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The third stage of development is the religious ;

but no stage is suffient by itself ;

the ethical stage transfigures the aesthetical,

and the religious transfigures the ethical.

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"Concluding Unscientific Postscript" by Soren Kierkegaard,1846

The subjective thinker is an engaged thinker,

one who by his activity commits himself

to an understanding of the truth which,

by the manner of his existence,he is ;

he seeks to comprehend himself,not as an abstraction,

but as an ethically engaged,existing subject.

Only individuals matter ; existence is individual in character.

An existent individual is one in the process of becoming ;

he moves into an uncertain future.

Since death is imminent every choise has infinite worth,

and every moment is a unique occasion for decisive action ;

each individual achieves has being through decision.

In his development the thinker may pass through

a.the aesthetical stage

-in which he experiments but does not commit himself-,

b.the ethical stage

-in which he acts decisively and commits himself-,

c.to the religious stage

-in which his sin is acknowledge and he commits himself to God-.