Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Traces of Kierkegaard’s Reading of the Theodicy

There are clear traces of Leibniz (1646-1716) in some crucial passages in Kierkegaard’s writings. For instance, as part of his subtitle to the “Interlude” of Philosophical Fragments, Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Climacus asks: “Is the past more necessary than the future?”1 This reads like a quotation from Leibniz’s Theodicy.2 As we shall see, it is by no means the only trace of Kierkegaard’s reading of Leibniz during an intense period of philosophical studies in 1842-43.