An in-depth anthology of the existentialist tradition - with an emphasis on the philosophy of personal experience.

Engaging in existential discourse beyond the European tradition, this book turns to Asian philosophies to reassess vital questions of life's purpose, death's imminence, and our capacity for living meaningfully in conditions of uncertainty. Inspired by the dilemmas of European existentialism, this cross-cultural study seeks concrete techniques for existential practice via the philosophies of East Asia. The investigation begins with the provocative writings of twentieth-century Korean Buddhist nun Kim Iryop, who asserts that meditative concentration conducts a potent energy outward throughout the entire karmic network, enabling the radical transformation of our shared existential conditions. Understanding her claim requires a look at East Asian sources more broadly. Considering practices as diverse as Buddhist merit-making ceremonies, Confucian/Ruist methods for self-cultivation, the ritual memorization and recitation of texts, and Yijing divination, the book concludes by advocating a speculative turn. This 'speculative existentialism' counters the suspicion toward metaphysics characteristic of twentieth-century European existential thought and, at the same time, advances a program for action. It is not a how-to guide for living, but rather a philosophical methodology that takes seriously the power of mental cultivation to transform the meaning of the life that we share.

Suitable for both the everyday reader and the introductory student, this clear and enlightening guide introduces the elusive philosophical school of Existentialism.

A lively introduction to this celebrated philosophical tradition. Using classic films, novels, and plays, Thomas E. Wartenberg explores the central ideas of Existentialism including freedom, authenticity, anxiety, and the Absurd. As well as discussing the ideas of such legendary thinkers as Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre, Wartenberg shows how Simone de Beauvoir and Franz Fanon use the theories of Existentialism to address gender and colonial oppression. This lively introduction reveals a vibrant mode of philosophical inquiry that pervades modern culture and addresses concerns at the heart of every human being.

Existentialism For Beginners is an entertaining romp through the history of a philosophical movement that has had a broad and enduring influence on Western culture. From the middle of the Nineteenth Century through the late Twentieth Century, existentialism informed our politics and art, and still exerts its influence today. Tracing the movement’s beginnings with close-up views of seminal figures like Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche, Existentialism For Beginners follows its intellectual and literary trail to German philosophers Jaspers and Heidegger, and finally to the movement’s flowering in post-World-War-II France thanks to masterworks by such giants as Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, plus many others. Illustrations throughout — at once lighthearted and gritty — help readers explore and understand a style of thinking that, while pervasive in its influence, is often seen as obscure, difficult, cryptic and dark. Existentialism For Beginners draws the movement’s many diverse elements together to provide an accessible introduction for those who seek a better understanding of the topic, and an enjoyable historical review packed with timeless quotes from existentialism’s leading lights.

This title was first published in 2000. Contemporary continental philosophy is a widely-used, but in many ways a highly problematic, term and its exact frame of reference is not always clear. In its more recent French manifestations in particular, it continues to arouse considerable controversy and create bitter divisions, with particularly hostile reactions to the work of Derrida and others. Much work in the recent continental tradition can be fitted into a longer-running philosophical tradition of scepticism, and scepticism has always had the power to provoke and unsettle the philosophical establishment. Presenting an overview of the philosophical landscape of the continental tradition since the 1940s, this book traces the establishment of the new, super-scepticism as an intellectual paradigm with the power to threaten and disorientate existing world-views and more traditional styles of philosophical discourse - marking the continental divide. Exploring how contemporary continental philosophy from existentialism to postmodernism can be characterised as this new, more resistant form of scepticism, Sim identifies a clutch of key themes - including "difference", "the subject", "antifoundationalism", "dialectics" - which have been obsessively worked over by key thinkers in the Existentialist-Postmodernist period and demonstrates how these have contributed to the development of a super-sceptical outlook. Presenting a new theme-led approach to provide an entry into current debates in continental philosophy, Stuart Sim reintegrates the work of Sartre into the more recent continental tradition, and suggests that something qualitatively different is now occurring in French philosophy.

The volume provides clear and comprehensive coverage of the main methodological debates and approaches within philosophy. The book gives equal weight to analytical and continental approaches, and pays attention to approaches that are often overlooked.

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.