ABSTRACT
The Danish word derives from the Latin genius, which in its primary sense refers to an innate ability or inclination, or to the person who possesses it.1 Christian Molbech, in his 1833 Danish lexicon, notes that genius (Genie) is the highest and most distinctive expression of a human being’s mental abilities or natural gifts.2 As examples he cites poetic, musical, and mathematical forms of genius. Kierkegaard’s usage mainly conforms to Molbech’s definition and spelling of the word, though he explicitly invokes the Latin root, ingenium, to emphasize the inborn, and hence immanent nature of genius. The most sustained treatments of the concept occur in Kierkegaard’s private papers, in the pseudonymously published essay entitled “The Difference Between a Genius and an Apostle,” and in The Concept of Anxiety.
