Existentialism: A Philosophical Inquiry

Existentialism asks some of the most fundamental questions about human existence: What gives our lives meaning and value? What is it to choose freely? How do I live an authentic life? How should I relate to myself and to others? In this book Joel Smith introduces and assesses the arguments and controversies surrounding these questions in an engaging way, providing a superb introduction to this important and perennial philosophical subject.

Connecting existentialist themes with contemporary questions in ethics, philosophy of action, and the emotions, he brings existentialism to life. He does so by focusing on a set of distinctively existentialist questions and themes, including race and gender, whilst at the same time engaging with the classic existentialist texts from Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Fanon and others. The book is organised clearly around the following key topics:

• Life
• Subjectivity
• Meaning
• Freedom
• Angst
• Bad Faith
• Alienation
• Gender
• Race
• Authenticity

Including chapter summaries and annotated further reading, Existentialism: A Philosophical Inquiry is the ideal starting point for anyone interested in this fascinating and important subject, in Philosophy as well as related disciplines such as Literature and Religion.

"This is an excellent introduction to existentialism. Smith does an admirable job categorizing and clarifying the core traits of the existentialists without imposing an overly strict definition of what does and doesn’t qualify. Giving more of a voice to Fanon’s contributions, with a whole chapter on race, is another of the book’s real virtues: it makes the subject more obviously relevant to our particular moment. In sum, this is a fantastic book, which has given me some great advice about how I can guide my students through the topic more successfully." – Ryan Kemp, Wheaton College, USA

"This is an excellent introduction to existentialism. Smith does an admirable job categorizing and clarifying the core traits of the existentialists without imposing an overly strict definition of what does and doesn’t qualify. Giving more of a voice to Fanon’s contributions, with a whole chapter on race, is another of the book’s real virtues: it makes the subject more obviously relevant to our particular moment. In sum, this is a fantastic book, which has given me some great advice about how I can guide my students through the topic more successfully." – Ryan Kemp, Wheaton College, USA

Joel Smith is Senior Lecturer in philosophy at the University of Manchester, UK. He is co-editor, with Peter Sullivan, of Transcendental Philosophy and Naturalism (2011) and, with Catherine Abell of The Expression of Emotion (2014). He is the author of Experiencing Phenomenology: An Introduction (Routledge, 2016).

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