The Emergence of the Concept of Existence: Schelling and Kierkegaard

In philosophy, the term ὑποκείµενον literally means “underlying thing,” which in Latin is “ subiectus ,” but in fact it means something which can predicate other things but cannot be a predicate of others, which in German philosophy corresponds to Schelling’s “ Unbedingtes .” Contrary to the opinion of many interpreters, there is a very close link between German idealism and twentieth-century existentialism. Kierkegaard attended Schelling’s lectures in Berlin in 1841 – 1842, where he became familiar with Schelling’s late philosophy in detail, and from this he developed his own concept of existentialism. The paper will show how, by transcending the notions of ὑποκείµενον and the subject, an existential philosophy emerges that will become a dominant feature of European culture in the twentieth century.