Worlds of Existentialism: A Critical Reader

by Maurice Friedman

Maurice Friedman's masterly anthology still stands apart decades after its original publication. It has become established as a classic - the most comprehensive collection of existentialist writing ever assembled. This edition includes a special preface by Professor Friedman surveying the developments in the field since this monumental work was first published and commenting on its relevance for present intellectual trends. The aim of this anthology is to elucidate the critical issues that exist among the existentialists, such as phenomenology and ontology, the existential subject, intersubjectivity, religion, and psychotherapy.To accomplish this aim Friedman has presented a large number of short selections from the most important existentialist writers and their forerunners, subsumed under these themes. Since this anthology is uniquely organised not by authors but by issues, the student should be able to recognise the various strains of existentialism, which Friedman views not as a single philosophy but a mood embracing a number of disparate philosophies, thus avoiding the easy labelling that distorts and oversimplifies this multifaceted movement.

Genres: Philosophy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, so I've put a lot of time into thinking about the eternal return versus oblivion, eternity, pain and angst, metaphysics and God, the vastness of the universe, the idea of endlessly contracting and expanding universes and the Big Bang and consciousness and the oneness and separateness of things, and empathy and morality and on and on, ad infinitum. When I was in college I read this book and found the variety of viewpoints illuminating and spent a good deal of time pondering all this. But, you know what? I just don't give a shit about this academic crap anymore now that I'm approaching 50. I can question "Why Why Why?" till the cows come home and beyond and none of these questions are going to be answered anymore than they ever have been by any other philosophers, and it ain't going to extend my life or improve the quality of it one whit by continuing to agonize over it. So now I just want to breathe clean air and work my biking muscles and drink good wine and listen to fine music and flirt and fuck and suck and enjoy everything while I do have time.
And that's why when people want to engage me in conversations about academic, philosophical, metaphysical issues and so on, or recommend books parsing out all kinds of archaic academic issues, I say, "No thanks." I want to feel my skin now and live.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

My copy is a 1964 First Printing by Random House, hardcover, found at an art studio potlatch in Seattle. I've chosen to read only selected passages, as this is a fairly comprehensive text intended for reference.
The passages by Jean-Paul Sartre are worth slogging through for the gems amid the verbiage, but the most readable and enlightening passages are those of Soren Kierkegaard. Purely based on familiarity with their names, I read passages from Pascal, Marx, Herman Melville, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Sartre, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Kafka. The selections chosen to represent the forerunners of Existentialism were well-rounded, short, and to the point, for the most part: a good introduction. I studied English, not philosophy, so I found the more poetic passages, such as Rilke's letters, more enjoyable than the the abstract philosophical double-speak of Heidegger, Nietzsche, and others. The section relating existentialism to psychology was more down to earth by comparison. Though this text is a bit much for the lay person to get through, I found it valuable in terms of gaining an understanding of the 20th Century zeitgeist that led us, as society, to where we are today. Though many of us may not be able to quote the official definition of existentialism, we live in an age rife with existential crisis.