How to Be an Existentialist

How to Be an Existentialist PDF Author: Gary Cox
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350068470
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
The 10th anniversary edition of a witty classic about the philosophy of existentialism. It is also a genuine self-help book offering clear advice on how to live according to the principles of existentialism formulated by Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and the other great existentialist philosophers. An attack on contemporary excuse culture, the book urges us to face the hard existential truths of the human condition. By revealing that we are all inescapably free and responsible - 'condemned to be free,' as Sartre says - the book aims to empower the reader with a sharp sense that we are each the master of our own destiny. Cox makes fun of the reputation existentialism has for being gloomy and pessimistic, exposing it for what it really is - an honest, uplifting, and potentially life changing philosophy! This striking 10th anniversary edition with a substantial new preface includes more pointers on how to be a true existentialist, including how to be an existentialist at a time when environmental issues are becoming ever more pressing and our 'post-truth' world increasingly subjects us to the politically polarising power of simplistic social media.

How to Be an Existentialist

How to Be an Existentialist PDF Author: Gary Cox
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350068470
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Get Book Here

Book Description
The 10th anniversary edition of a witty classic about the philosophy of existentialism. It is also a genuine self-help book offering clear advice on how to live according to the principles of existentialism formulated by Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and the other great existentialist philosophers. An attack on contemporary excuse culture, the book urges us to face the hard existential truths of the human condition. By revealing that we are all inescapably free and responsible - 'condemned to be free,' as Sartre says - the book aims to empower the reader with a sharp sense that we are each the master of our own destiny. Cox makes fun of the reputation existentialism has for being gloomy and pessimistic, exposing it for what it really is - an honest, uplifting, and potentially life changing philosophy! This striking 10th anniversary edition with a substantial new preface includes more pointers on how to be a true existentialist, including how to be an existentialist at a time when environmental issues are becoming ever more pressing and our 'post-truth' world increasingly subjects us to the politically polarising power of simplistic social media.

The Discovery of Being

The Discovery of Being PDF Author: Rollo May
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039334696X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
“Clear, accurate, and interesting. There is no better short introduction to the existential approach to psychology.” —Dallas Morning News The brilliant psychologist Rollo May was a major force in existential psychology. Here, he brings together the ideas of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and other great thinkers to offer insights into its ideas and techniques. He pays particular attention to the causes of loneliness and isolation and to our search to find new and firm moorings in order to move toward a future where responsibility, creativity, and love can play a role.

The Existentialist's Survival Guide

The Existentialist's Survival Guide PDF Author: Gordon Marino
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 006243599X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
“When it comes to living, there’s no getting out alive. But books can help us survive, so to speak, by passing on what is most important about being human before we perish. In The Existentialist’s Survival Guide, Marino has produced an honest and moving book of self-help for readers generally disposed to loathe the genre.” —The Wall Street Journal Sophisticated self-help for the 21st century—when every crisis feels like an existential crisis Soren Kierkegaard, Frederick Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and other towering figures of existentialism grasped that human beings are, at heart, moody creatures, susceptible to an array of psychological setbacks, crises of faith, flights of fancy, and other emotional ups and downs. Rather than understanding moods—good and bad alike—as afflictions to be treated with pharmaceuticals, this swashbuckling group of thinkers generally known as existentialists believed that such feelings not only offer enduring lessons about living a life of integrity, but also help us discern an inner spark that can inspire spiritual development and personal transformation. To listen to Kierkegaard and company, how we grapple with these feelings shapes who we are, how we act, and, ultimately, the kind of lives we lead. In The Existentialist's Survival Guide, Gordon Marino, director of the Hong Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College and boxing correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, recasts the practical takeaways existentialism offers for the twenty-first century. From negotiating angst, depression, despair, and death to practicing faith, morality, and love, Marino dispenses wisdom on how to face existence head-on while keeping our hearts intact, especially when the universe feels like it’s working against us and nothing seems to matter. What emerges are life-altering and, in some cases, lifesaving epiphanies—existential prescriptions for living with integrity, courage, and authenticity in an increasingly chaotic, uncertain, and inauthentic age.

On Being and Becoming

On Being and Becoming PDF Author: Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190913673
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
While existentialism has long been associated with Parisian Left Bank philosophers sipping cocktails in smoke-filled cafés, or with a brooding, angst-filled outlook on life, Gosetti-Ferencei shows how vital and heterogeneous the movement really was. In this concise, accessible book, Gosetti-Ferencei offers a new vision of existentialism. As she lucidly demonstrates, existentialism is a rich and diverse philosophy that encourages meaningful engagement with the world around us, offering a host of fascinating concepts that pertain to life as we experience it. The movement was as heterogeneous as it is now misunderstood, influenced by jazz music, involving diverse thinkers from around the world, challenging received ideas about the meaning of human existence. Part of the difficulty in defining existentialism is that it was never a unified philosophy, but came to identify a set of shared concerns about the meaning and possibility of human freedom, as it may be expressed in authentic choices, actions, and projects. Existentialists all explored how, in the absence of traditional reassurances about the meaning of life, we may transcend our present circumstances, and give our situation new meaning. With existentialism, concrete, lived experience of the single individual emerged from the shadow of abstract systems and long-defended traditions, and became subject-matter in its own right for philosophical inquiry. Far from solipsistic, Gosetti-Ferencei shows that existentialist attention to the human self can be intertwined with ways of conceiving the world, our being with others, the earth, and the encompassing concept of being. Fully appreciating what existentialism has to offer requires recognizing the rich diversity of its prospects, which involve not only anxiety, absurdity, awareness of death and the loss of religious meaning, but also hope, the striving for happiness, and a sense of the transcendent. On Being and Becoming unpacks this philosophical movement's insights, and reveals how its core ideas promote creative responses to the question of life's meaning.

Nausea

Nausea PDF Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811217002
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
This classic Existentialist novel features a new Introduction by renowned poet, translator, and critic Richard Howard.

The Labyrinth

The Labyrinth PDF Author: Ben Argon
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1683357434
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
“Designed for the studious and dabblers alike” this unique graphic novel offers “an accessible primer on one of the 20th century’s weightiest thinkers” (Publishers Weekly). Life can often feel like a rat race. To make sense of it all, generations of truth seekers have turned to the works of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Now a fellow seeker shares a charming and accessible introduction to Sartre’s profound and complex ideas—told in cartoons. Ben Argon’s graphic novel about a pair of rats trapped in the labyrinth of existence humorously conveys the key ideas of Sartre’s existential philosophy. In addition, two Sartre scholars have contributed an introduction and afterword providing context and deeper insight.

Existentialist Thinkers and Ethics

Existentialist Thinkers and Ethics PDF Author: Christine Daigle
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773531386
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Twentieth-century existential thinkers, critical of traditional, overly rationalistic approaches to ethics, sought to provide a better account of what it means to be human in the world. They articulated ethical views that respected the individual yet were fundamentally concerned with the Other and the ethical value of an authentic life. Their philosophy has often been dismissed as unsuccessful. Through examination of the thought of eight key figures in existentialism - Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Camus, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Merleau-Ponty - this collection demonstrates that such dismissals are unfounded. Contributors tackle the difficulties raised by an existentialist ethics and show how each thinker successfully elaborated an ethics that provides a viable alternative to traditional ethical views.

At The Existentialist Café

At The Existentialist Café PDF Author: Sarah Bakewell
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473545323
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
Shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize Paris, near the turn of 1932-3. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking... ‘It’s not often that you miss your bus stop because you’re so engrossed in reading a book about existentialism, but I did exactly that... The story of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Heidegger et al is strange, fun and compelling reading. If it doesn’t win awards, I will eat my copy’ Independent on Sunday ‘Bakewell shows how fascinating were some of the existentialists’ ideas and how fascinating, often frightful, were their lives. Vivid, humorous anecdotes are interwoven with a lucid and unpatronising exposition of their complex philosophy... Tender, incisive and fair’ Daily Telegraph ‘Quirky, funny, clear and passionate... Few writers are as good as Bakewell at explaining complicated ideas in a way that makes them easy to understand’ Mail on Sunday

Existential America

Existential America PDF Author: George Cotkin
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801870378
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
"As Cotkin shows, not only did Americans readily take to existentialism, but they were already heirs to a rich tradition of thinkers - from Jonathan Edwards and Herman Melville to Emily Dickinson and William James - who had wrestled with the problems of existence and the contingency of the world long before Sartre and his colleagues. After introducing the concept of an American existential tradition, Cotkin examines how formal existentialism first arrived in America in the 1930s through discussion of Kierkegaard and the early vogue among New York intellectuals for the works of Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus.

Irrational Man

Irrational Man PDF Author: William Barrett
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307761088
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Widely recognized as the finest definition of existentialist philosophy ever written, this book introduced existentialism to America in 1958. Barrett speaks eloquently and directly to concerns of the 1990s: a period when the irrational and the absurd are no better integrated than before and when humankind is in even greater danger of destroying its existence without ever understanding the meaning of its existence. Irrational Man begins by discussing the roots of existentialism in the art and thinking of Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, Baudelaire, Blake, Dostoevski, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Picasso, Joyce, and Beckett. The heart of the book explains the views of the foremost existentialists—Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre. The result is a marvelously lucid definition of existentialism and a brilliant interpretation of its impact.