"It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards."
— Søren Kierkegaard
It Is Perfectly True As The
It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
About this quote
This is the complete original entry from Søren Kierkegaard's journal (IV A 164, 1843), of which the shorter version (quote 425 in this collection) is the abbreviated form. The fuller formulation makes explicit what the condensed version leaves implicit: Kierkegaard is not simply agreeing with the philosophical observation about retrospective understanding — he is pointing out that philosophers (he has Hegel in mind) forget the other half of the paradox. Systematic philosophy tries to understand life from the completed end, sub specie aeternitatis, but each person must act and choose from within time, without that retrospective vantage point.
Source
Journals, IV A 164 (1843)
