On June 17, 1844, only four days after the Philosophical Fragments was published, two new works appeared, The Concept of Anxiety and Prefaces. Both texts seem to contain a polemic against Hegel and specific Hegelians. This was, generally speaking, a period of particular philosophical ferment for Kierkegaard as is evinced by many passages in the journals and papers. The Concept of Anxiety mentions Hegel by name several times and seems to be generally more openly polemical with him than the Philosophical Fragments. The theme of the work is the issue of hereditary sin, which is indicated by the subtitle, “A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin.” In his Introduction, Kierkegaard's pseudonymous author, Vigilius Haufniensis, explains the subject-matter of the treatise as follows: “The present work has set as its task the psychological treatment of the concept of ‘anxiety’ but in such a way that it constantly keeps in mente and before its eye the dogma of hereditary sin.” In the discussion of sin, a number of other philosophical issues are touched upon, such as freedom of the will, and a number of philosophical fields are explored, such as philosophical anthropology and psychology. This clearly makes The Concept of Anxiety one of Kierkegaard's more philosophical works.

Many scholars have seen the criticisms offered in The Concept of Anxiety as being directed against Hegel. Thulstrup characterizes this as “the book's whole anti-Hegelian perspective.”