The Philosophy of Existentialism: Selected Essays

by Jean-Paul Sartre

A collection of essays by Jean-Paul Sartre that touch upon the subject of existentialism by looking at aesthetics, emotions, writing, phenomenology, and perception
The Philosophy of Existentialism collects representative essays on Jean-Paul Sartre’s pioneering existentialism. Beginning with a thoughtful introduction by fellow French philosopher Jean Wahl, this worklooks at existentialism through several lenses, exploring topics such as the emotions, imagination, nothingness, freedom, responsibility, and the desire to be God. By providing exposition on a variety of subjects, The Philosophy of Existentialism is a valuable introduction to Sartre’s ideas.  

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

408 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2015

About the author

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."
Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyles and thought. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally, 'bad faith') and an "authentic" way of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work Being and Nothingness (L'Être et le Néant, 1943). Sartre's introduction to his philosophy is his work Existentialism Is a Humanism (L'existentialisme est un humanisme, 1946), originally presented as a lecture.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have read this many years ago I guess. Back when I might have cared about any of it.

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 helped me give a 25 min seminar on sartre and existentialism

[Zack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I had reviewed this earlier, and now I've forgotten the specifics of my thoughts, but the brunt of it is: I enjoyed the first essay "Existentialism and Human", but after that when he got into his philosophy of being and nothingness I got tired of it pretty quick, read half of it and skipped through it after that.

There's a type of discussion where the verbiage is so abstract that instead of being grounded in anything, it only stands on other abstractions, all the way down. This can allow people to easily have contradictory intuitions about a subject and the only way to get on the same page is to endlessly define terms and for any outsider to make any sense of it they have to adopt the entire edifice of ideology. Theology wholly falls into this category, and any ideology does to some extend, but it's nice when there is a better ratio between the number of things we can check in reality and the number of words said about such things.

[Lulu Flitton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. Sartre shows the breadth of his writings in these multi disciplinary essays.