A detailed reconstruction of Kierkegaard's concept of recognition has been lacking until now in Kierkegaard research. This book attempts to derive Kierkegaard's implicit concept of recognition in Either Or and in Works of Love from the concepts of choice and love. It seeks to show that self-choice and self-love are to be understood as elementary forms of recognition. This means that the capacity to choose for oneself and to love oneself is the prerequisite for mutual recognition.