ABSTRACT

In a section of A Literary Review entitled “The Present Age”,1

written in 1846, Kierkegaard warns that his age is characterized by a disinterested reflection and curiosity that level all differences of status and value. In his terms, this detached reflection levels all qualitative distinctions. Everything is equal in that nothing matters enough that one would be willing to die for it. Nietzsche gave this modern condition a name; he called it nihilism.