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mxunsmiley's review against another edition
5.0
At first I was a bit skeptical but this turned out to be an entertaining look into the lives of the prominent existentialists. I think it is a good introduction to their thinking, it certainly has piqued my interest because I had a completely different idea of what existentialism was about before reading this. It's also cool to see how their philosophies aligned with their political ideologies throughout the course of historical events, for better or worse (especially in the case of Heidegger... glad he's dead).
pixie_d's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
devonmaureen's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
3.5 or a 3.75? I did end up really enjoying this book. It made a lot of these figures come to life as people. I appreciated the gossip. A bit meandering or, non-central? But I definitely learned a lot I didn’t know. As someone who dislikes philosophy, I came around to liking this and liking the subject more.
m_henchard's review against another edition
3.0
I've long had a distaste for mid-20th c. countercultural types in philosophy, and I have to thank the author for finally convincing me I need not investigate any of the writers discussed, save Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and maybe Iris Murdoch.
mrs_bonaventure's review against another edition
4.0
Dense, heavy reading at times but lightened regularly by biographical details. I read all of de Beauvoir's memoirs and The Second Sex as a teenager and had forgotten how much it influenced me - built me - it's so much part of my early feminist education.
In this I was reminded of the whole milieu and why I've always thought Sartre was more impractical and somehow less useful in real life than de Beauvoir - but - this made me realise the sheer influence and force of his (their) philosophy, and its origins and forebears.
Even though they seem spectacularly naive politically by today's cynical standards, at least it was an attempt to be politically committed - engagé - which we've fallen out of today. They made mistakes but they were an attempt to at least do something. That's worth learning from. So is the responsibility to continually decide what to do with one's "wild and precious life." In that sense, existentialism is the only philosophy to fully attempt real life, real choices, real responsibilities.
In this I was reminded of the whole milieu and why I've always thought Sartre was more impractical and somehow less useful in real life than de Beauvoir - but - this made me realise the sheer influence and force of his (their) philosophy, and its origins and forebears.
Even though they seem spectacularly naive politically by today's cynical standards, at least it was an attempt to be politically committed - engagé - which we've fallen out of today. They made mistakes but they were an attempt to at least do something. That's worth learning from. So is the responsibility to continually decide what to do with one's "wild and precious life." In that sense, existentialism is the only philosophy to fully attempt real life, real choices, real responsibilities.