The Existentialist Reader: An Anthology of Key Texts

By Paul S. MacDonald

Book Overview

The Existentialist Reader is a comprehensive anthology of classic philosophical writings from eight key existentialist thinkers: Sartre, Camus, Heidegger, de Beauvoir, Jaspers, Marcel, Merleau-Ponty, and Ortega y Gasset. These substantial and carefully selected readings consider the distinctive concerns of existentialism: absurdity, anxiety, alienation, death. A comprehensive introduction by Paul S. MacDonald illuminates the existentialist quest for individual freedom and authentic human experience with insight into the historical and intellectual background of these major figures. The Existentialist Reader is a valuable guide to the provocative theories that shook the philosophical world in the 1930s and continue to profoundly shape the way we think about ourselves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415936632
• ISBN13: 9780415936637
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.8" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

A Valuable Book.

This is a very insightful and concise anthology that may serve as a bible for those entering the world of existentialism and phenomenology; also, for those who already have a fundamental grasp of existential themes and existential ontology this book serves to both refresh the memory and cement a well-rounded knowledge of the topic in the reader. Don't be overly alarmed about the omission of Nietzsche and Kierdegaard. The reader is informed of this omission in the preliminary acknowledgements and is given a reasoning for the omission in the introduction. Dr. MacDonald has written an extremely comprehensive and lucid introduction - in itself the introduction is a valuable exposition of the subject matter. The energy, vigour and supply of intricate detail that is given in the introduction is followed through to all subsequent chapters. Furthermore, the selection of readings by the eight different authors gives the reader an invaluable insight into the thoughts of some of the 20th century's most prominant thinkers. Overall, this is an exellent book that supplies the reader with an impetus for further existential and phenomenological inquiry.