The danish Soren Kierkegaard (May 5, 1813 / November 11, 1855) was one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century, to the point of considering him the father of existentialism. He was the author of famous phrases and in this text the one he quotes will be analyzed in particular: «Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards«.
Born in Copenhagen In 1813, his life was marked by deep existential anguish and constant reflection on the meaning of life, faith and freedom. In fact, existentialism is one of the philosophical currents that focuses its analysis on the human condition, the meaning of life and individual responsibility, among others.
One of the basic principles he maintains is that “existence precedes essence.” Although Kierkegaard precedes the boom of this current in the 20th century (among the First and Second World Wars), influenced modern philosophy Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger y Jean-Paul Sartreamong others.
Kierkegaard offered a unique perspective on the tensions that humans face in their search for meaning and authenticity. He dedicated himself to exploring human psychology, suffering and the relationship between the individual and God.
His best-known work was «The concept of anguish» (1844), written by the author under the pseudonym «Vigilius Haufensis«, where he describes that anguish/fear is a poorly defined fear and that it has to do with the complete freedom of the human being to choose his actions.
For this philosopher, the fact that one has the possibility and the freedom to do something that even exceeds one’s possibilities, it scares the subject. Anguish was not an obstacle, but an essential condition for achieving an authentic existence.
It is also based on the notion of faith, a concept that it defines as the decisive act through which a person commits to believing in something beyond reason. With all this, the phrase «Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards«, takes on greater existential relevance.
This concept of the philosopher, which in September 2025 was fulfilled 170 years since his deathhides the paradox of time behind, since «understanding backwards» implies that the understanding of what happened to us can be analyzed with the facts, but we can only live it «forwards», because we will never know what the future holds for us.
In the latter lies the existential anguish that Kierkegaard proposes because Humans must always make crucial decisions, leaving out other options. and without having any idea how each one is going to end. Then comes the look back, and the ratings on the results of those elections.
Living is, by definition, betting blindly. A «jump into the void«, without knowing what lies ahead. Kierkegaard warns about the trap of how we see our life: what we analyze today in our past was a construction after what happened. At the time we experienced it, it was chaos and it was pure present/future, not knowing how it was going to end.
On the other hand, it is an invitation to do. Because if you try to understand life in the present, you will miss out on living it. You always have to do it looking at the futurewithout knowing if the results will be as expected when looking back.
