Take a minute to relax. Enjoy the lightness, or surprising heaviness, of the paper, the sharpness of the ink and the regularity of the character. There are more than four pages in this stack, filled with answers to some questions, proposals on topics that are necessarily of a personal nature. All philosophy is personal, but some philosophers might deny this. Here we are discussing philosophers who would not be so foolish. Two proto-existentialists, Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, were keen observers of humanity, yet their conclusions were different enough to seem contradictory. Here we will talk about Nietzsche's "preparatory human being" and Kierkegaard's "knight of faith". Both are archetypal human beings who exist according to their respective philosophical values, and as such, each performs different functions and has different qualities. Both serve the same purpose, though. The free spirit and the knight of faith are both human beings preparing against the implosion of the concept of god in Western society. Nietzsche's dramatis personae “…is different from the actor of this drama” (Science 241). The preparatory human being is one who sees the world as Nietzsche sees it, and therefore his characterization is Nietzsche, and the people he sees stand out from the rest of society. The preparatory human being is one who is suited to the transition that Nietzsche sees the world around him going through. This is the destruction of belief in God. Nietzsche proposes that this belief has disappeared and wonders how people will be able to deal with this problem (Science 181). Also mentioned by Nietzsche in The Gay Science is his view that monotheism stifles and directs the individual towards a normative sense of morality... middle of paper... in short, that God was in danger, and he wrote of human beings who would survive the impersonal world. It is in these writers that many existentialists, self-described or otherwise, have seen inspiration for a new kind of life. The free spirit and the knight of faith are both beings who can resist the melting of ice idols and are able to dance joyfully in the warm breeze. Works Cited Guignon, Charles B. and Derk Pereboom. Existentialism: Basic Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2001. Print.Kierkegaard, Søren, Howard V. Hong, Edna H. Hong, and Søren Kierkegaard. Philosophical Fragments, Johannes Climacus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1985. Print.Nietzsche, Friedrich and Walter Kaufmann. Gay Science: With a Rhyming Prelude and an Appendix of Songs: Translated, with Commentary by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random, 1974. Print.