Recommend me some existentialism...

cleanbluesky said:
Anyone know what the most important books on existentialism are?

Thanks in advance...

I suppose this thread could also be titled "Spec me some books on speccing reality"

Dunno if you've looked, but wiki has these as sugegsted reading:

* Appignanesi, Richard; and Oscar Zarate (2001). Introducing Existentialism. Cambridge, UK: Icon. ISBN 1-84046-266-3.
* Cooper, David E. (1999). Existentialism: A Reconstruction, 2nd ed., Oxford, UK: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-21322-8.
* Luper, Steven (ed.) (2000). Existing: An Introduction to Existential Thought. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield. ISBN 0-7674-0587-0.
* Marino, Gordon (ed.) (2004). Basic Writings of Existentialism. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 0-375-75989-1.
* Pirsig, Robert M. (1974). Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. New York: Morrow. ISBN 0-688-00230-7.
* Solomon, Robert C. (ed.) (2005). Existentialism, 2nd ed., New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517463-1.
* Appignanesi, Richard (2006). Introducing Existentialism, 3nd ed., Thriplow, Cambridge: Icon Books (UK), Totem Books (USA). ISBN 1-84046-717-7.
 
What I'm looking for are the original publications that lead to existentialism becoming recognised rather than GOOD BOOKS by current theorists... books that are classics - but thanks for the input so far
 
cleanbluesky said:
What I'm looking for are the original publications that lead to existentialism becoming recognised rather than GOOD BOOKS by current theorists... books that are classics - but thanks for the input so far

Is there not source material from the proponents of existentialism still available?
 
Anything by Jean-Paul Satre, La Nausée if you can get an english version. I studied a little of him, I was under the impression that he was the founding father of existentialism.
 
cleanbluesky said:
Anyone know what the most important books on existentialism are?

Thanks in advance...

I suppose this thread could also be titled "Spec me some books on speccing reality"

Lemme guess, you've been on another course? :p
 
"The outsider" by Albert Camus.

Excellent piece of existentialist fiction. One of the main reasons he won the nobel prize for literature.


"Nausia" by Jean-Paul Satre is often taken as one of the key works, but I'm not such a fan personally.
 
Duff-Man said:
"The outsider" by Albert Camus.

Excellent piece of existentialist fiction. One of the main reasons he won the nobel prize for literature.


"Nausia" by Jean-Paul Satre is often taken as one of the key works, but I'm not such a fan personally.

Apparently Nausia reads a lot better in French.

Lots of French existentialist movies out there as well.
 
There's also Le Mythe de Sysiphe, which is an essay by Camus which L'etranger gets its themes from.

Les Mains Sales, which is probably Satre's best known play on existentialism, is a good read and you should be able to find Les Justes, which is a play Camus again, if you look.
 
Utilitarianism f t w ;)

Seriously,

Dostoevsky - Notes from the Underground
Nietzche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra

both very good, and as above really Satre and Camus for more "Modern" Exisitentialist work, although I have not really read or studied much of that.
 
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