Analytic Existentialism

Existentialist philosophy has, at times, been exceptionally popular. This is because of its promise of possibility, both in doctrine and in style: Its doctrine promises that we can break free from the shackles of cognitive or social structures we are thrown into, and we can overcome our marred personal or collective history. Its style promises that philosophy can be exciting, moving, exhilarating, and funny.

Analytic Existentialism brings together ten essays in which analytic philosophers engage with existentialism. The essays take up central existentialist themes, such as freedom, consciousness, and bad faith. Some bring existentialist ideas to bear on issues in contemporary analytic philosophy; some engage analytically with existentialist concerns; some employ the methods of analytic philosophy to interpret existentialist texts; and some articulate how existentialist insights speak to ongoing matters of concern outside of philosophy. All essays, taken together, make good on the existentialist promise for analytic philosophy: Even as analytic philosophers, we can embrace the thought that freedom is at the heart of our being. And even as analytic philosophers, we can write philosophical texts that capture the imagination. We trust that these essays can rekindle the excitement of philosophical thought.

Berislav Marušic, Senior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh,Mark Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern California

Berislav Marušic is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Before that, he taught at Brandeis University for 13 years. He has written on agency, the emotions, skepticism, and interpersonal epistemology. He is currently working on a book about Sartre, and he is a committed analytic existentialist.

Mark Schroeder is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, where he is the founding director of the Conceptual Foundations of Conflict Project. His work has focused on the nature of moral thought and reality, the foundations of norms on belief, and on the consequences of what it means to be a person for the structure and dynamics of interpersonal relationships and interpersonal conflict. This is his first public confession to fascination with existentialist ideas and themes.

Introduction, Berislav Marušic and Mark Schroeder1. More Than is Dreamed of In Recent Metaethics and the Philosophy of Action, Sarah Buss2. Anger, Intentionality, and the View from Within, Matthew Boyle3. 'I' and Self-Consciousness, Béatrice Longuenesse4. No Inertia in Consciousness, Pamela Hieronymi5. Embodied Radical Freedom, Berislav Marušic6. Authorial Freedom, Mark Schroeder7. Sartre, the Look, and the Cogito, Richard Moran8. Toward an Existentialist Metaethics: Beauvoir's Groundwork, Daniela Dover and Jonathan Gingerich9. Criticizing Women: Simone de Beauvoir on Complicity and Bad Faith, Filipa Melo Lopes10. Existential Solipsism, Eli Hirsch