|
Irrational Man : A Study in Existential Philosophy
For those of you who want to learn a lot about existentialism, and/or those of you who find Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre to be dauntingly difficult and/or time-consuming, this book is hands-down the best. Written in the late 1950's, "Irrational Man" is largely responsible for introducing existentialism to America. Barret provides excellent summaries of the work of all of the major figures in existentialism (with the exception of Merleau-Ponty) and brilliantly integrates their work within Western literary, religious, artistic, and philosophical traditions. Barret provides great insight on the roots of existentialism in the history of Western civilization, and in doing so also constructs a highly informative narrative about that history itself.
Nausea
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Absurdity was not an idea in my head nor the sound of a voice...Without formulating anything I knew that I had found the key to my existence, to my nausea to my life. And indeed everything I have ever grasped since that moment comes back to this fundamental absurdity.
Existentialism and Human Emotions
The existentialist...thinks it very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with Him; there can no longer be a priori of God, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. Nowhere is it written that the Good exists, that we must be honest, that we must not lie; because the fact is that we are on a plane where there are only men. Dostoyevsky said, If God didn't exist, everything would be possible. That is the very starting point of existentialism. Indeed, everything is permissible if God does not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within him nor without does he find anything to cling to. --Jean Paul Sartre
Reality Check... from MindPleasures.com
|