Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, Revised and Expanded Edition, Book Cover May Vary Paperback – March 1, 1975

This is the book that introduced me to Existentialism in graduate school. It has a great selection of writings, and unlike most books on Existentialism is clear, not turgid. I now think of Existentialism as being a mood rather than a system of thought, and many of these writings are literary not academic, but that is a good thing. I took a graduate seminar on Existentialism from the man who edited this book, Walter Kaufmann. He was acerbic, but a great teacher. His emphasis was not on what philosophers taught, or what arguments they gave for their positions, but what kind of men they were. He was more concerned that his students embraced challenging, creative, heroic lives, than he was about teaching them how to parse obscure and usually fallacious arguments.

Ordered for a college class, but a great read for anyone interested in the area of philosophy or existentialism.

Walter Kaufmann's book, "The Faith of a Heretic" was the work which brought me to study philosophy, and I have been a fan of his writings and translations ever since, but, like some reviewers have said, if your interest is to study a particular author, this book is not for you. It may not even be for you if you wish to study Existentialism. But, if what you want is to get some feeling for what this Existentialism thing is all about, this collection is far superior to, for example, William Barrett's "Irrational Man", who, I believe makes a special mish mash of the 19th century precursors of Existentialism.One example is with the writings of Dostoyevsky, who wrote very long, intricately plotted novels, but to find those passages which uniquely identify his perception of the existential condition of life, you could spend days. Here, in a very nice, concise selection, is exactly the passage you want, from "Notes from Underground". I would say the same about the other literary selections from Kafka, Rilke, Camus, and perhaps Sartre. Oddly, I would skip over the Nietzsche selections and read Nietzsche's complete books, especially "The Gay Science" and "Beyond Good and Evil". He wrote in aphorisms, but his arguments spanned several numbered paragraphs.I suspect that reading snippets of Heidegger is a total waste of time, but I think Jaspers piece of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard is a nice piece for this collection. To those who complained about the binding and printing, I have no such problems with my latest edition.

It is through the literature of the well known authors featured in this book that we better understand existentialism, a subject very difficult to comprehend otherwise.

This is a difficult one to read. It is one of my more challenging books. I'm sure there is meat in there somewhere or I wouldn't read it.

fast delevery perfect condition

Easiest introduction to some difficult and/or prolific existentialist thinkers. The selections with regard to Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky are especially well chosen.

It s ok