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This course will address these questions, among others, through the reading of philosophical and literary texts that belong to the “existentialist” movement. Focusing on themes of the individual, freedom, authenticity, and self-other relations, this course will cover major philosophers in 19th and 20th century western Philosophy including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, Buber, and de Beauvoir.
In Part One, Meursault, an indifferent French Algerian, first went to his mother’s funeral, then encountered Marie who soon became his girlfriend. They, together with their friends, went to the beach in French Algiers for vacation, where Meursault ended up shooting an Arab man to death. In Part Two, Meursault was arrested and put into prison. At the trial, the prosecuting attorney portrays Meursault's quietness and passivity as demonstrating guilt and a lack of remorse, and he was sentenced to death. While waiting during his appeal, he encountered a chaplain but he refused to turn to God. The novel is centered on the notion of absurdity of life.
This book presents the writings of key nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers broadly united by their belief that because life has no inherent meaning humans can discover, we must determine meaning for ourselves. These thinkers are acknowledged as the followers of existentialism, a philosophical movement most influential in continental Europe from about 1930 to the mid-20th century. This anthology brings together into one volume the most influential and commonly taught works from the foremost representatives of existentialism. Contributors include Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ralph Ellison, Martin Heidegger, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo.
This work by Martin Buber demonstrates how interhuman meetings are a reflection of the human meeting with God. In this work, Buber gives expression to the intuition that we need to withstand the temptation to reduce human relations to the simple either/or of Apollonian or Dionysian, rational or romantic ways of relating to others. We are beings that can enter into dialogic relations not just with human others but with other animate beings, such as animals, or a tree, as well as with the Divine Thou. I and Thou was first translated into English in 1937 by Ronald Gregor Smith, and this books is the Smith translation.
This book by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, published in 1846, diagnoses many current ills: most strikingly, the superficiality of a culture that has swapped the authority of God. Foreseeing the rise of twenty-four-hour news and social media, Kierkegaard analyzes the philosophical implications of a society dominated by the mass-media, and argues that the present age drains the meaning out of ethical concepts through passionless indolence. Kierkegaard is against abstract moments in time or public opinion as a basis for forming relationships, and even says that advertising and publicity almost immediately co-opts and suppresses revolutionary actions/thoughts.
This book collects four plays by the French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre. No Exit is an existential portrayal of Hell which proposes that “hell is other people” rather than a state created by God. The Flies is a modern reworking of the Electra-Orestes story. Dirty Hands is about a young intellectual torn between theory and praxis. The Respectful Prostitute is a scathing attack on American racism. Although all the plays reflect their emphasis upon the raw hostility of human toward human, Sartre still maintains their content does not exclude the possibility of a morality of salvation.
This work by Nietzsche describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. In this work, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission, but in an all-powerful life force: passionate, chaotic and free. The work is a combination of prose and poetry, including epigrams, dithyrambs, and parodies as well as sections of pure poetry. It is written in four parts and first published in German between 1883 and 1885. This book is an English translation by R. J. Hollingdale.
This book offers a selection from the writings of Martin Heidegger: 8 complete essays, 2 uncut excerpts from larger works, and 1 abridged piece. These selections cover all periods of Heidegger’s philosophical thoughts, mainly in chronological order of composition. Heidegger was a German philosopher, mainly active in the 20th century and widely acknowledged as the representative philosopher of existentialism. His major philosophical contribution is his interpretation of the notion of Being. Heidegger also makes critical contributions to the philosophical conception of truth. In this book, you can find selections addressing these philosophical questions, such as “Being and Time: Introduction” and “On the Essence of Truth”.
This is an anthology of Søren Kierkegaard's works assembled in English. The anthology begins with Kierkegaard's early journal entries, and traces the development of his work chronologically with an entire selection of 31 writings, all from Kiekegaard’s Writings edited by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher and a major influence on existentialism in the 20th century. He was renowned for his emphasis on individual existence—particularly religious existence—as a constant process of becoming and for his invocation of the associated concepts of authenticity, commitment, responsibility, anxiety, and dread.
This is an anthology of Søren Kierkegaard's works assembled in English. The anthology begins with Kierkegaard's early journal entries, and traces the development of his work chronologically with an entire selection of 31 writings, all from Kiekegaard’s Writings edited by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher and a major influence on existentialism in the 20th century. He was renowned for his emphasis on individual existence—particularly religious existence—as a constant process of becoming and for his invocation of the associated concepts of authenticity, commitment, responsibility, anxiety, and dread.
This book collects Frederick Nietzsche’s major works, including 5 complete works-The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, The Case of Wagner, and Ecce Homo- and 75 aphorisms from his aphoristic books, as well as selections from his correspondence about The Case of Wagner, and variants from Nietzsche’s drafts for Ecce Homo. Nietzsche was a German philosopher active in the 19th century. He gives a large role to the will to power and he proposes to replace the values he attacks -Socrates, scholarship, God, truth, morality, equality, democracy and most other modern values- with new values and a new ideal of the human person.
This book is an essay in as well as on existentialism. The book is divided into four parts. Part one examines the contemporary context in which existentialism appears as a new and formidable philosophical force. Part two is concerned with ancient, medieval and classical modem sources and anticipations of existentialism. Part three consists of chapters devoted to Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre respectively. Part four is concerned with "Integral vs. Rational Man." Appended to the work are two short pieces. The first treats the negative as revealing human finitude. The second returns to the existential proposition.
Generally, the term existentialism refers to a number of thinkers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries who made the concrete individual central to their thought. This book exactly focuses on the leading figures of existentialism, including Sartre, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, and Camus. In this book, Flynn explains the key themes of individuality, free will, and personal responsibility, which marked the movement as a way of life, not just a way of thinking. At the end of the book, Flynn discusses the continued relevance of existentialist philosophy in our day.
