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Title: Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre (Meridian)
ISBN: 0452009308
Author:
Publicate Date: 1975-03-01
Publish: 1975-03-01
List Price: $15.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.00
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1: NOT FOR ME
ON PAGE 258 THE AUTHOR SAYS " ANY ATTEMPT TO FOLLOW THE TRAIN OF THOUGHT OF THE PRECEDING LECTURE IS BOUND, THEREFORE, TO MEET WITH OBSTACLES.
THAT ABOUT SUMS IT UP FOR ME. I TRIED VERY HARD TO STAY WITH THIS BOOK BUT NO DEAL.
GENE ADDINGTON
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2: A decent start, a disappointing collection
Let me first preface this review by saying that you probably won't find a crisper compact collection of works by existentialist philosophers. (Marino's *Basic Writings of Existentialism* might be an exception to this rule, if only for its relative completeness...) But that's not because this book is of especially high quality; there just aren't too many anthologies like this out there.
What is striking about this book is how poorly it introduces the leading philosophies of key figures like Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Jaspers. Here are some more particular comments and criticisms of the different sections. There's a common thread running through my criticisms, and it's this: the editor seems less concerned with giving the reader a sense of the ideas of the authors he includes, and more concerned with justifying their inclusion in the anthology. It's as if he cherry-picked excerpts and articles to show that the philosophers in question could really be considered existential (with the exception of Dostoevsky). So, anyway, without further ado:
(1) Including the first part of 'Notes from the Underground' is brilliant. No quarrel with that.
(2) The section on Kierkegaard is pretty inadequate. My eyes widened when I realized that Kaufmann hadn't included anything from *Fear and Trembling* (at least the first two Problemata) or *Either/Or*-- even though these are considered two of his most important works. Also, Kaufmann decided to put some of Kierkegaard's quasi-autobiographical stuff in there, for reasons that are totally beyond me.
(3) The section on Nietzsche is even worse: it is twelve pages long, containing only short snippets of various books. Nothing from *On the Genealogy of Morals* or *Beyond Good and Evil*-- even though that's where you find quite a few significant essays on truth and objectivity, which you think would be relevant here.
(4) If you're only going to put eight pages of truncated Kafka in the anthology, you might as well leave him out of it altogether.
(5) Seventy-five pages of this collection are devoted to Jaspers; he gets more space in the book than anyone else except Sartre. What the hell? It could've easily been reduced to about half that. Not only that, he picks the unhelpful 'On My Philosophy' and Jaspers' unconvincing criticisms of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche as representative of his philosophical theories.
(6) The section on Heidegger is not too bad, though I came away from it with a very poor grasp of what he was trying to say; it would've been nice to know what his eccentric terminology was meant to refer to. Same with the section on Sartre... it was like being thrown in the deep end on your first swim.
(7) No De Beauvoir whatsoever... sigh...
So, buyer beware: this should be supplemented with extensive reading to acquire the philosophical background necessary to understanding these thinkers. Kaufmann himself offers little to no guidance. His introduction dwells on their intellectual personalities and criticizes their underlying methods without providing the reader with any substantive analysis of their main ideas. And when you're dealing with philosophers whose works are less than perspicuous, you need more than just a meandering, ADD-driven preface; Kaufmann should've at least managed to say nothing in fifteen pages, not forty.
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3: A buffet of existentialism
The book is layed out in a way that you can pick and choose which philosopher you want to read more about. A good read.
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4: The Best Introduction to Existentialism
This anthology of Existentialist texts is the best introduction to Existentialism currently available in English. Walter Kaufmann (best known to philosophy readers as the twentieth century's most important translator of Nietzsche) presents a selection of key texts from Kierkegaard, Dostoyevski, Nietzsche of course, Heidegger, Sartre and others, and Kaufmann prefaces the anthology with a magisterial intro. The most important piece included is the complete text of Sartre's early lecture "Existentialism is a Humanism," the most accessible and clearest exposition of the most influential phase of his thought. If you want to know what Existentialism is all about (or if you already know but want to own a great reference book of essential texts), this is the book to buy.
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5: i disagree with the previous review.
I believe this book is fantastic, especially as a beginning point for understanding what existentialism is. The book has a well written preface that explains that existentialism is not really well defined, but encompasses certain themes. This book does a good job of taking a selection of those who share those themes, and introducing them here. I think it gives one a good representation and idea of existentialism, that can be studied more in depth later, by reading the full text of what is represented here. Very well translated by WK.
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