The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy

A powerful new anthology that redefines ourunderstanding of existentialism and argues for itscontemporary relevance

A Penguin Classic

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 debates throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This major new anthology gathers the key texts of existentialism, and those of the movement’s nineteenth-century intellectual precursors, along with other 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, it significantly expands and redefines our understanding of what existentialism means, and why it matters.

Jonathan Webber is Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University. He is theauthor of Rethinking Existentialism (2018) and The Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre (2009), editor of Reading Sartre: on Phenomenology and Existentialism (2011), and translator of Sartre's book The Imaginary (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.

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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