Books on existentialism

Hi, i'm very much interested in existentialist thinkers. I've loved the ideas found in Taoism and Zen Buddhism (I consider these a type of existentialism albeit from my limited understanding of it) and i've very much enjoyed a lot of Nietzche's writings. I also really like Bakunin (anarcho-collectivist/nihilist)...My ideas have sort of involved into a marmelade of all those ideas over time.

So yeah im being lazy but can you lovely people recommend any good easily available books that are in the same vein as the above people that you'd think I appreciate...

Cheers my dears

 

Well, Sartre and Max Stirner are indispensible.

 

If you want a nice introduction (not an easy one... but an introduction nonetheless), try Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. It's edited by Walter Kaufman. It'll give you a nice overview before diving into some deeper waters.

 

Kirkegaard - either/or (the 'first' existentialist)
Husserl for the foundations of phenomenology which is vital to a knowledge of existentialism
Heidegger
Hirsch
Bultmann
and lastly and if you want to read two people who are the 'poster boys' of existentialism then read camus and sartre who are interesting, but i'd argue are not as important as the other thinkers.

 

i'm currently reading nausea by john paul sartre, and i absolutely love it

 

I would also add Georges Bataille, though be careful to get the right book.

 

firstly Georges Bataille ISNT an existentialist

and secondly you should always read EVERYTHING by him

 

^^I'm itching to read this.

I decided to buy the Outsider by Albert Camus, initially i was annoyed i'd spent good money for 120 or so pages, but I absolutely loved it, not just the content, but the prose was also fantabulous (flows so nicely). Camus seems to be an excellent writer.

I'm not sure if he's considered an existentialist though (this label seems to be pretty loose fitting and broad). I know he didn't like that label.

Kirkegaard's theism sort of turns me off his work.

I think after Nausea i'll delve into Husserl and phenomenology.

 

frankly, theres only so much a novel can do to convey things, thats why i'd suggest that people didnt take nausea and the outsider as the bibles of existentialism...you'll always have to read some formal philosophy in order to really comprehend it...

Also i suggest hermeneutics as an area to look at towards a greater understanding of existentialism and phenomenology

 

Not necessarily.

Some people aren't looking to become expert intellectuals on the subject. Formal philosophy is often very tedious anyway, so novels are a great way of conveying the message in a more accessible way and to a wider audience and the intellectually impaired...

 

yes true

but if you want to really gain an understanding of existentialism then eventually your going to have to delve into the formalised philosophy, otherwise you've simply got a trivial understanding of existentialism.

And i've read both the outsider and nausea, and they do not provide a really accurate description of existentialism. Formalised philosophy does, however if you simply want a pub quiz knowledge of existentialism then i guess thats fine

 

lol pub-quiz knowledge

Yeah fair play. I dont really have the time at the moment to delve deeper though, not at the moment, it's hard because i've always got a book on the go (fiction and non-fiction) and always have about 10 books waiting in line.

 

hmm i have the same problem! its a pain isnt it

 

Firstly, Bataille IS an existentialist...if you have the nose to smell it. He is one of the most existentially minded thinkers out there. The other thing is, also read Nietzsche. Especially the two of his most hated books, Will to Power and Ecce Homo.

But one may get a shock from reading these two authors unless you're already an existentialist OR...you got the nose for it.

 

firstly, whilst bataille was friends with existentialists, his philosophy was hated by the likes of john paul sartre...So tell me why you believe Bataille to be an existentialist...

It seems to be the work of this form just to name an continental philosopher from that period as an 'existentialist'...frankly thats not always the case

secondly DONT read the will to power and ecco homo unless you've read the birth of tragedy, philosophy in the tragic age of the greeks, thus spoke zarathustra, beyond good and evil and the genealogy of morals first. Frankly as with any author who as a developing thought throughout his texts, it would be silly to jump right in at the end.

 

I'm saying Bataille is an existentialist because of the conceptual content of his writings. Not all existentialists are buddies, and if Sartre is the measure of all existentialism, then obviously Camus would have to be considered something other than an existentialist.

All his terminology and concept of sovereignty, nothingness, anguished gayeity, etc. is so damn existentialist as to be almost an European variation of Zen. Of course you may argue Zen's got nothing to do with existentialism, but I'd beg to differ.

Further, I read all of Nietzsche except for "Dawn" --- even his more obscure Untimely Meditations was read by me. Though I benefited tremendously from reading all of him, I would not re-read any of his stuff aside from Zarathustra, Ecce Homo, and Will to Power. His thought by then was fully matured and it establishes all the thematic threads of existentialism.

Of course, as is the case with all of Nietzsche, you'd have to tolerate his self-referencing. But altoghether, those three books make for some of the best reading I've ever done, period. It all depends on whether one identifies intellectually with his thinking.

 

hmm well just because bataille touched upon nothingness doesnt mean that he was 'existential'...frankly, his appeal was toward the search for lost intimacy, rather than nothingness...

and nietzsche wasnt an existentialists, nietzsches reaction to nothing was to be reaffirmed by it and to question the very nature of our being, Nietzsches mission was in analysing the question of being, and a reaffirmation of poetry and the presocratics. For an existentialist the concept of nothing would drive them into doing nothing

The trends toward nominalism over essentialism is base existential, however im not convinced that simply because bataille and nietzsche touched upon existentialism that it makes them existential in the way that Sartre was.

Frankly, Nietzsche is a good reference point toward the birth of Sartre's existentialism, however i wouldnt say that it was existential...however i will agree that Nietzsche certainly has a distinct influence upon existential philosophy.

 

If Nietzsche wasn't an existentialism then you're referring to a Sartre-centric label, nothing else. Camus' The Myth os Sisyphus should also be read, whether he qualifies or not.

 

For some good old existentialist french feminism you can't go wrong with Simone DeBeauvoir's The Second Sex.

 

i think its also important to use some discretion with nietzsche- its important to remember that he was only beginning to fall into insanity while writing Thus Spoke Zarathustra- while he's still brilliant one should always consider the state of an author when attempting to use their books for refrence