The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy

by Various, Jonathan Webber (Editor)

Overview

'Existentialist thought [...] is an effort to reconcile the objective and the subjective, the absolute and the relative, the timeless and the historical.' Simone de Beauvoir

In the aftermath of the Second World War, a group of intellectuals gathered to discuss urgent questions of existence, commitment, racism, colonialism, and feminism. Their ideas would continue to shape those debates throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This anthology gathers the key texts of existentialism, and their major intellectual influences, along with works previously neglected in overviews and anthologies of the movement. Incorporating the writings of Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and Frantz Fanon, alongside selections from Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Martin Heidegger. Edited and introduced by Jonathan Webber, Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780241645420
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	11/13/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Jonathan Webber is Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University. He is the author of Rethinking Existentialism (Oxford University Press, 2018) and The Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre (Routledge, 2009), editor of Reading Sartre: on Phenomenology and Existentialism (Routledge, 2011), and translator of Sartre's book The Imaginary (Routledge, 2004). He has written on existentialism for public audiences at Aeon, New Statesman, and Times Literary Supplement. He is a trustee of the Mind Association and President of the UK Sartre Society.

Table of Contents

What Existentialism Is and Why It Matters
How To Read This Book

1. INSPIRATIONS
Crop Rotation Søren Kierkegaard
The Present Age Søren Kierkegaard
The Joyous Science Friedrich Nietzsche
A Short Account of Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud
Dasein and Anxiety Martin Heidegger

2. BEING AND NOTHINGNESS
Anguish, Freedom, and Values Jean-Paul Sartre
Conducts of Bad Faith Jean-Paul Sartre
The Look Jean-Paul Sartre
Existential Psychoanalysis Jean-Paul Sartre

3. THE EXISTENTIALIST OFFENSIVE
The End of the War Jean-Paul Sartre
Existentialism and Popular Wisdom Simone de Beauvoir
Portrait of the Anti-Semite Jean-Paul Sartre
Literature and Metaphysics Simone de Beauvoir

4. THE SECOND SEX
Femininity: The Trap Simone de Beauvoir
Myths Simone de Beauvoir
Woman’s Situation and Character Simone de Beauvoir
Conclusion Simone de Beauvoir

5. COLONIALISM AND RACIALIZATION
The Lived Experience of the Black Man Frantz Fanon
The Black Man and Psychopathology Frantz Fanon
From One China to Another Jean-Paul Sartre

AFTERWORD
‘No, I’m not an existentialist’, Albert Camus Tells Us Jeanine Delpech

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