Det er navnlig P. W. Lund - hvis to brødre havde været gift med to af Kierkegaards søstre - der har vakt Kierkegaards interesse for naturvidenskaberne. Herom holdt han sig underrettet gennem bl. a. det populærvidenskabelige Dansk Ugeskrift, hvori også Lund offentliggjorde sin berømte afhandling Om de brasilianske Myrers Levemaade. I 1835 skrev Kierkegaard til Lund dybt inde i Brasilien:"Begeistret har jeg været for Naturvidenskaberne og er det endnu; men dog synes mig, at jeg ikke vil gøre mig dem til mit Hovedstudium. Mig har altid Livet i Kraft af Fornuft og Frihed interesseret meest, at klare og løse Livets Gaade har bestandig været mit Ønske."

It was chiefly P. W. Lund - whose two brothers had been married to two of Kierkegaard's sisters - who awoke Kierkegaard's interest in the natural sciences. He kept himself informed on these subjects through the popular scientific magazine Dansk Ugeskrift [Danish Weekly], in which Lund also published his famous treatise Om de brasilianske Myrers Levemaade [On the life of the Brasilian ants]. In 1835 Kierkegaard wrote to Lund who then was deep in the interior of Brazil: "I have been enthusiastic about the natural sciences and still am; though I do not think I will make them my primary field of study. Life by virtue of reason and freedom has always been my greatest interest, to clarify and solve the riddle of life has been my constant desire.

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