If you've ever felt angest, also known as angst, you can thank Soren Kierkegaard for coining a world to define an anxiety-ridden situation in his book The Concept of Anxiety. An educational video teaches high schoolers about Kierkegaard's desperate despair towards life and human nature, and how his relatively short lifetime yielded some of the most influential works of 19th century philosophy.

Concepts

philosophers, death, human nature

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Pair with a class reading of Either/Or and have students write about an impossible choice they have encountered in their lives

Classroom Considerations

• A suggestive animation of nude statues accompanies a narration of Kierkegaard's view of love and sex (2:00 mark)
• Discusses Kierkegaard's complicated opinion of the Christian church

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Humorous narration and engaging animation make the video interesting for viewers
• Clearly defines the theme of death in Kierkegaard's works

Cons

• None

Common Core

SL.9-10.2 SL.11-12.2 RH.9-10.2 RH.11-12.2