The treatise “Either - or” (“Enten - eller”, 1843) is one of the first truly independent works of the outstanding Danish philosopher, theologian and writer Søren Kierkegaard. It presents for the first time the famous dialectic of the “stages of human existence”: aesthetic , ethical and religious. The essay, signed with the name of the fictitious “editor” Victor Eremita, compositionally combines two parts: the literary and philosophical “notes” of a certain young “aesthetician” and the lengthy letters of his opponent, an ethically motivated judge, as well as the mysterious “Ultimatum” , representing a rather radical version of the Christian position.