SOURCE: Taylor, Mark C. “Aesthetic Therapy: Hegel and Kierkegaard.” In Kierkegaard's Truth: The Disclosure of the Self, edited by Joseph H. Smith, pp. 343-80. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.

In the following essay, Taylor compares the works of Søren Kierkegaard and Hegel, particularly in the area of psychology, to highlight what he views as their common purpose of educating readers and encouraging them to cultivate themselves spiritually.

Few thinkers have contributed more to shaping the modern sense of self than the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel and the Danish philosopher-theologian Søren Kierkegaard. In areas as diverse as theology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, literature, and art, the insights originally articulated by Hegel and Kierkegaard have been critically examined, imaginatively elaborated, and eagerly appropriated. Nor has their influence been restricted to that rarefied atmosphere of academic reflection and discussion removed from the confusion and vitality of everyday experience...