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"Existentialism."
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Existentialism Revisited : the Big Lie from Nietzsche to Lu Xun
What commonality holds together all existentialists? Existentialism is notoriously difficult to define and there seems to be little agreement on how to use the term. At the same time, a cursory look at the content pages of the authoritative works on existentialism reveals that their authors discuss more or less the same list of thinkers. If this is so then it feels reasonable to assume that there is something tangible that holds the concept of existentialism together. This thesis aims to identify the commonality of existentialism by analysing the ideas of five existentialist writers-Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Sartre and Camus-whose status as existentialist thinkers is rarely questioned in the relevant literature. This thesis is an interdisciplinary project that employs Deleuze's methodology of conceptual personae to facilitate a dialogue between literature and philosophy. Conceptual personae are idiosyncratic figures that help philosophers to enunciate complex ideas without resorting to reductive definitions. My thesis reads some of the key literary figures in writers' novels as conceptual personae, thereby achieving a methodological transition from textual analysis to conceptual analysis. By closely analysing these chosen conceptual personae, this thesis identifies a common paradigmatic structure that all the major works commonly agreed to be works of existentialism share. This structure consists of the following constituents: (i) a realisation of the existential lie; (ii) a movement towards a transitional state of reactive nihilism; (iii) a presentation of ultimate demands. The identification of the existentialist paradigm enriches our conceptual understanding of existentialism. Importantly, it gives us a tool to discover existentialist thinkers outside of the Western tradition. The last chapter employs this tool in the Chinese cultural context and helps identify the influential Chinese writer Lu Xun as an existentialist. This discovery will then turn out to have some exciting implications for our understanding of China's Cultural Revolution.
Dissertation
Jean-Luc Nancy and the Future of Philosophy
Jean-Luc Nancy's The Experience of Freedom is a landmark work of contemporary continental philosophy and his writings on psychoanalysis, literature, theology, art, and culture have been widely influential. Jean-Luc Nancy and the Future of Philosophy is a sustained and critical examination of Nancy's ideas and their place within the general project of deconstructing Western philosophy. B.C. Hutchens offers a clear and succinct appraisal of Nancy's work. He explains the primary areas of the philosopher's thought and explores their relevance for contemporary issues such as nationalism, racism, media rights, and political practice. Nancy's work on freedom and morality, community and politics, and arts and the media is examined in greater detail. Hutchens also examines Nancy's indebtedness to Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Bataille and compares his ideas with those of his contemporaries, such as Levinas and Negri. Jean-Luc Nancy and the Future of Philosophy concludes with the author's recent and previously unpublished interview with Nancy about the future of philosophy. This book is an important addition to the literature on contemporary continental thought and political philosophy.
eBook
Philosophy of Kierkegaard
Although the ideas of Søren Kierkegaard played a pivotal role in shaping mainstream German philosophy and French existentialism, the question of how philosophers should read Kierkegaard is difficult. His intransigent religiosity has led some philosophers to view him essentially as a religious thinker with an anti-philosophical attitude. In a major new survey of Kierkegaard's thought, George Pattison addresses this question and shows that although it would be difficult to claim a \"philosophy of Kierkegaard\" as one can a philosophy of Kant or Hegel, there are significant common interests in Kierkegaard's central thinking and the questions that concern philosophers today. The Philosophy of Kierkegaard examines existence, anxiety, the good, and the infinite qualitative difference and the absolute paradox, arguing that the challenge of self-knowledge in an age of moral and intellectual uncertainty which lies at the heart of Kierkegaard's writings is as important today as it was in the culture of post-Enlightenment modernity.
eBook
Existentialism and romantic love
\"This existential study of romantic loving draws on five existential philosophers to offer insights into what is wrong with our everyday ideas about romantic loving, why reality often falls short of the ideal, what can be done to overcome frustrations and disappointments, and possibilities for creating authentically meaningful relationships. Skye Cleary argues that existential philosophies reveal to us the notion that once lovers free themselves from preconceived ideals about how romantic lovers ought to behave, and free themselves from being slaves to their passions, they will be free to create relationships that complement and enhance their personal authentic endeavors. Existential thinking lends itself well to the problems of love, since it turns abstract thought into dealing with concrete human experiences and relationship dilemmas. It provides the narrative to explore the space between the ideals of romantic loving and the compromises and sacrifices lovers make in order to try to achieve those ideals. Moreover, the issues that the existential thinkers deal with - choice, responsibility, anxiety, authenticity, freedom, and power - are timeless\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Philosophy of Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) crafted one of the most unified philosophical systems by synthesizing Plato, Kant, and Asian religious traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism into an encyclopedic worldview that combines the empirical science of his day with Eastern mysticism in a radically idealist metaphysics and epistemology. In The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, Dale Jacquette assesses Schopenhauer's philosophical enterprise and the astonishing implications it has for metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, logic, science, and religion. Jacquette analyses the central topics in Schopenhauer's philosophy, including his so-called pessimistic appraisal of the human condition, his examination of the concept of death, his dualistic analysis of free will, and his simplified non-Kantian theory of morality. His metaphysics of the world as representation and Will - his most important and controversial contribution - is discussed in depth. The legacy of Schopenhauer's ideas, in particular his influence on Nietzsche, who was first a follower and then an arch opponent, and the early Wittgenstein, is explored in the final chapter. This introduction makes even the most difficult of Schopenhauer's ideas accessible without sacrificing any of their complexity.
eBook