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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
The predominant post-war philosophical “movement” Existentialism, ripe in post-war universities and infused in the artwork of it’s time, is rarely discussed as a vibrant flowering philosophy. In a 1967 New York Times piece (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/07/30/issue.html), the movement itself was recognized as influential, but largely dismissed by it’s influencers (Sartre, Heidegger, and Jaspers). How the movement came and went is documented in this wonderful work that looks at the biographies, documents and larger culture between the 1910s and early 1970s.
Sarah Bakewell explores the beckoning of existentialism as the “bloom of experience and communication that lies at the heart of the human mystery” (p.677). Her exploration of the two colossi Heidegger and Sartre imagines a re-awakening of our self-perception. The two fundamental questions – who we are; what we should do here – explored in the post-war Europe build new inroads into exploring identity, ethics, gender, and purpose.
Reading this book, I was humbled by the placement of war and violence toward many of the situational ethics explored. Jean Paul Sartre famously wrote “there are two ways to the gas camber – free or not free”. Given the loss of human life experienced by these thinkers in the first world war (notably Husserl) or their relationship to Nazi Germany/occupied France, the loss of freedom is never far from a lived reality. Some of the literature that occupies our imagination now like Camus’s “The Stranger”, “The Plague” or Sartre’s “No Exit” resonates with our own alienation during this current era of pandemics and fractured political unity.
To her credit, Bakewell takes on what existentialism is. No easy task for a group of eclectic thinkers, that were inventing their own language to be unburdened from experience. Concern with the individual, inseparability from anxiety, involvement in personal projects and emphasis on personal responsibility sum of some of the prevailing notions. Although much of the philosophy grow from the phenomenology, responding to life itself, the documents truly range across all academic thought. It’s imprint found in social theory of gender (Simone De Beauvoir’s work), modern catholic thought (Paul Tilch), and artwork (70s movie director auteurs).
The book explores many of these ideas through the vehicle of biography and story. At times I feel lost with her. For instance, I recognized the obfuscating and illuminating language of Heidegger, and also appreciating the assumed question of “being” was being deconstructed. The fevered output and positioning of Sartre takes many forms, but Bakewell identifies an anarchistic humanism at the root of all his messy choices.
Although not discussed here, Austin professor Robert Solomon’s lectures, brilliantly tackle some of the questions of where existentialism is rooted in our post-modern world. Agency and humanity, tenets of existentialism seem to be the very targets of post-structural thought. Technology and authenticity, visible in social media discourse, have proven to be foes at time regarding ethical questions. Our questions over ethics and human existence are being reimagined with new deconstructions of identity in the cultural spheres, and artificial intelligence, which may be recognized as sentient in this century.
Existentialism for myself remains more a promise than a legacy. A flurry of ideas over apricot cocktails in a Bec-De-Gaz bar (p.19) some 100 years ago. But those ideas were never meant to be static, codified or assumed. Like Bakewell, I felt connected to these thinkers, for their engagement with the world, their passions, and their deep stares into the abyss of nothingness.
Maybe there is one historical truth that is laid bare here from their works, that existentialism was never about despair. Existence precedes essence. Being here, being thrown, existing was never a choice. But here we are. Now, what can do we with it.
Sarah Bakewell explores the beckoning of existentialism as the “bloom of experience and communication that lies at the heart of the human mystery” (p.677). Her exploration of the two colossi Heidegger and Sartre imagines a re-awakening of our self-perception. The two fundamental questions – who we are; what we should do here – explored in the post-war Europe build new inroads into exploring identity, ethics, gender, and purpose.
Reading this book, I was humbled by the placement of war and violence toward many of the situational ethics explored. Jean Paul Sartre famously wrote “there are two ways to the gas camber – free or not free”. Given the loss of human life experienced by these thinkers in the first world war (notably Husserl) or their relationship to Nazi Germany/occupied France, the loss of freedom is never far from a lived reality. Some of the literature that occupies our imagination now like Camus’s “The Stranger”, “The Plague” or Sartre’s “No Exit” resonates with our own alienation during this current era of pandemics and fractured political unity.
To her credit, Bakewell takes on what existentialism is. No easy task for a group of eclectic thinkers, that were inventing their own language to be unburdened from experience. Concern with the individual, inseparability from anxiety, involvement in personal projects and emphasis on personal responsibility sum of some of the prevailing notions. Although much of the philosophy grow from the phenomenology, responding to life itself, the documents truly range across all academic thought. It’s imprint found in social theory of gender (Simone De Beauvoir’s work), modern catholic thought (Paul Tilch), and artwork (70s movie director auteurs).
The book explores many of these ideas through the vehicle of biography and story. At times I feel lost with her. For instance, I recognized the obfuscating and illuminating language of Heidegger, and also appreciating the assumed question of “being” was being deconstructed. The fevered output and positioning of Sartre takes many forms, but Bakewell identifies an anarchistic humanism at the root of all his messy choices.
Although not discussed here, Austin professor Robert Solomon’s lectures, brilliantly tackle some of the questions of where existentialism is rooted in our post-modern world. Agency and humanity, tenets of existentialism seem to be the very targets of post-structural thought. Technology and authenticity, visible in social media discourse, have proven to be foes at time regarding ethical questions. Our questions over ethics and human existence are being reimagined with new deconstructions of identity in the cultural spheres, and artificial intelligence, which may be recognized as sentient in this century.
Existentialism for myself remains more a promise than a legacy. A flurry of ideas over apricot cocktails in a Bec-De-Gaz bar (p.19) some 100 years ago. But those ideas were never meant to be static, codified or assumed. Like Bakewell, I felt connected to these thinkers, for their engagement with the world, their passions, and their deep stares into the abyss of nothingness.
Maybe there is one historical truth that is laid bare here from their works, that existentialism was never about despair. Existence precedes essence. Being here, being thrown, existing was never a choice. But here we are. Now, what can do we with it.
Bakewell does a really good job weaving together philosophical ideas, biographical details and socio-historical context. Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre become understandable. Their theories become less abstract, more connected to the world.
An insightful, meandering look at the Philosophy of Existentialism, tracing its early roots in Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, the place it's mostly associated with (France in the mid 20th century), philosophers who made it glamorous in Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Merleau Ponty and Albert Camus, their fascinating relationships, eventual fallouts and the turbulent times they lived in.
Additional care is taken by the author to look at Existentialism's precursor as we know it today in Phenomenology, highlighting the giants in the field (Huserl and Heidegger) and other lesser known phenomenologists.
The book as stated above does meander a bit, and the author goes off on tangents at times (her fascination with the subject shining through). In the end, she presents us with a very fine biographical and mesmerising look at Existentialism.
An all-round great read.
Additional care is taken by the author to look at Existentialism's precursor as we know it today in Phenomenology, highlighting the giants in the field (Huserl and Heidegger) and other lesser known phenomenologists.
The book as stated above does meander a bit, and the author goes off on tangents at times (her fascination with the subject shining through). In the end, she presents us with a very fine biographical and mesmerising look at Existentialism.
An all-round great read.
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Gave good background on the principle players in the existenstial movement.
This book is full with so many interesting facts about Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Martin Heidegger and other existentialists.
A Sweeping History of 20th century Existentialism + a good intro for fans of "The Good Place*"
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback edition (2017) of the Chatto & Windus hardcover original (2016)
Sarah Bakewell performs an impressive and engrossing feat of condensing the lives and works of a few dozen Twentieth Century philosophers and sometime fiction writers and playwrights into a relatively slim 400+ pages. It is a personalized story as well, as she often mentions when she herself discovered these same writers in her own reading life and shares comments on favourite passages and books.
Despite their often paradoxical defenses of "odious regimes" (Heidegger - Nazism & Sartre - Communism) the human love of freedom of choice and individualism still shines through in these life histories. The stories are especially humanized through the often quirky anecdotes that Bakewell has collected e.g. once Sartre and Beauvoir saw a sea elephant (ie. sea lion) being fed in a zoo. It had its snout in the air as fish were being poured down its gullet by the zookeeper. Later in life, if Sartre ever felt glum all Beauvoir had to do was remind him of that story, Sartre would stick his nose up in the air and all would be right again with the world.
Aside from a crash course in Existentialist writings, there is trivia aplenty about writers such as Jean Genet and Albert Camus and many others. Did you know that E.M. Forster wrote a 1909 short story "The Machine Stops" that basically predicted the internet and tablets/smart phones? I'd never heard of it before until reading about it here.
All this and also the greatest valedictory passage ever. this side of Roy Batty ("I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, etc...") in the original "Blade Runner," and written by Simone de Beauvoir even 23 years before her passing. It is at the top of page 313 in the Vintage Canada edition, towards the end of Chapter 13.
Don't let the $10 words like Phenomenology and Existentialism intimidate you. Think of them as simply "experience without preconception" and "freedom of choice" and relax and learn. You are in the hands of a master communicator/educator with Sarah Bakewell.
*
My thanks to Liisa for this book! A return thank you is on its way to you.
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback edition (2017) of the Chatto & Windus hardcover original (2016)
Sarah Bakewell performs an impressive and engrossing feat of condensing the lives and works of a few dozen Twentieth Century philosophers and sometime fiction writers and playwrights into a relatively slim 400+ pages. It is a personalized story as well, as she often mentions when she herself discovered these same writers in her own reading life and shares comments on favourite passages and books.
Despite their often paradoxical defenses of "odious regimes" (Heidegger - Nazism & Sartre - Communism) the human love of freedom of choice and individualism still shines through in these life histories. The stories are especially humanized through the often quirky anecdotes that Bakewell has collected e.g. once Sartre and Beauvoir saw a sea elephant (ie. sea lion) being fed in a zoo. It had its snout in the air as fish were being poured down its gullet by the zookeeper. Later in life, if Sartre ever felt glum all Beauvoir had to do was remind him of that story, Sartre would stick his nose up in the air and all would be right again with the world.
Aside from a crash course in Existentialist writings, there is trivia aplenty about writers such as Jean Genet and Albert Camus and many others. Did you know that E.M. Forster wrote a 1909 short story "The Machine Stops" that basically predicted the internet and tablets/smart phones? I'd never heard of it before until reading about it here.
All this and also the greatest valedictory passage ever. this side of Roy Batty ("I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, etc...") in the original "Blade Runner," and written by Simone de Beauvoir even 23 years before her passing. It is at the top of page 313 in the Vintage Canada edition, towards the end of Chapter 13.
I think with sadness of all the books I’ve read, all the places I’ve seen, all the knowledge I’ve amassed and that will be no more. All the music, all the paintings, all the culture, so many places: and suddenly nothing. They made no honey, those things, they can provide no one with any nourishment. At the most, if my books are still read, the reader will think: There wasn’t much she didn’t see! But that unique sum of things, the experience that I lived, with all its order and its randomness — the Opera of Peking, the arena of Huelva, the candomblé in Bahía, the dunes of El-Oued, Wabansia Avenue, the dawns in Provence, Tiryns, Castro talking to five hundred thousand Cubans, a sulphur sky over a sea of clouds, the purple holly, the white nights of Leningrad, the bells of the Liberation, an orange moon over the Piraeus, a red sun rising over the desert, Torcello, Rome, all the things I’ve talked about, others I have left unspoken — there is no place where it will all live again. - Simone de Beauvoir as quoted in At the Existentialist Café
Don't let the $10 words like Phenomenology and Existentialism intimidate you. Think of them as simply "experience without preconception" and "freedom of choice" and relax and learn. You are in the hands of a master communicator/educator with Sarah Bakewell.
*
Spoiler
Yes, TV's "The Good Place" has more to do with Sartre's "No Exit" than you might think. ;)My thanks to Liisa for this book! A return thank you is on its way to you.
An exploration into the social milieu into which existentialism emerged. Centring on Sartre and de Beauvoir, this is both a lively history as well as an interesting exploration into the philosophical concepts.
The book concentrates mainly On Heideggar and Husserl and their influence on the Existentialists. Obviously ww2 and Nazism were seminal in coalescing the philosophy, then again you could always do Vipassana meditation and you have a less wanky philosophy than the one that liberated millions of fake beatnicks, queers and other dickheads and inspired them to become neo-liberal and free Capitalists. Fuck off.
I once had a fella who told me that I was an Existentialist. "Gee, thanks," I said all those years ago, having no idea what the philosophy entailed, but it sounded cool, so I rolled with it. Now that I've read this nifty chit-chat of a book, I'm convinced my guy had no idea what it meant either. If he had actually read about Existentialism, he would've name-dropped like there was no tomorrow, and I would already know how to pronounce the philosophers' names. But nope, I had to train my inner voice to play with French-ness while reading this book. (Sartre is "SART." De Beauvoir sounds like " duh beau-VWAH." or "duh beau-VWAR." I alternate between both in my mind because I am an ignorant honky.) There is also lots of German, which, strangely, is not a problem for my inner phonetic workings. (Das Hammerding. Zuhandenheit. Bring it.)
MOVING ON. Existentialism stems from an even longer word and concept known as Phenomenology. (Fee-no Mee-no lo-gee?) These philosophies approach religious or spiritual terms—we have "rapturous" moments; the philosophies speak of humanity becoming "dissolved" by a metaphysical power; humans are always searching for "meaning" and "purpose." Simone de Beauvoir could stare at a table and feel joyous because it was HERE with her and acting in all its TABLE-ish functionality. (Sartre never got much of a kick out of the "table" thing. He got transported into squeamishness by anything gooey or "viscous." He maybe got freaked out by a chestnut tree once—"It simply sat there refusing to make sense or tone itself down." This line makes me giggle. Goddamn tree! Knock it off!)
Overall, this book takes an extremely biographical approach to Existentialism. It devotes a handful of chapters to each heavy-hitter—the top three being Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Heidegger. And the following big names are given more like "supporting character" status: Arendt, Merleau-Ponty, Jaspers, Camus, Kierkegaard . . . It was a unique approach to a philosophy book. The author writes as if these people were her friends—sharing ideas, squabbling, traveling, fighting wars . . . However, the last chapters are a huge buzzkill as all the folks grow old, lose their minds and die. This is a good reason to avoid biographical approaches to topics.
But because this book has a fun and casual tone, it's like a conversation; it is FUN to read about this knotted, complicated philosophy. It ties Existentialism into history; it's a school heavily informed by wartime of the 20th century. It offers a fantastic perspective for anyone who finds themselves thrown into this crazy existence on Planet Earth (this is all of us). And it's a good book for people who think tables and trees are awesome.
Oh, and here's a joke quoted from the book . . . Jean-Paul Sartre walks into a cafe, and the waiter asks what he'd like to order. Sartre replies, "I'd like a cup of coffee with sugar, but no cream." The waiter goes off, but comes back apologizing "I'm sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream. How about with no milk?"
MOVING ON. Existentialism stems from an even longer word and concept known as Phenomenology. (Fee-no Mee-no lo-gee?) These philosophies approach religious or spiritual terms—we have "rapturous" moments; the philosophies speak of humanity becoming "dissolved" by a metaphysical power; humans are always searching for "meaning" and "purpose." Simone de Beauvoir could stare at a table and feel joyous because it was HERE with her and acting in all its TABLE-ish functionality. (Sartre never got much of a kick out of the "table" thing. He got transported into squeamishness by anything gooey or "viscous." He maybe got freaked out by a chestnut tree once—"It simply sat there refusing to make sense or tone itself down." This line makes me giggle. Goddamn tree! Knock it off!)
Overall, this book takes an extremely biographical approach to Existentialism. It devotes a handful of chapters to each heavy-hitter—the top three being Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Heidegger. And the following big names are given more like "supporting character" status: Arendt, Merleau-Ponty, Jaspers, Camus, Kierkegaard . . . It was a unique approach to a philosophy book. The author writes as if these people were her friends—sharing ideas, squabbling, traveling, fighting wars . . . However, the last chapters are a huge buzzkill as all the folks grow old, lose their minds and die. This is a good reason to avoid biographical approaches to topics.
But because this book has a fun and casual tone, it's like a conversation; it is FUN to read about this knotted, complicated philosophy. It ties Existentialism into history; it's a school heavily informed by wartime of the 20th century. It offers a fantastic perspective for anyone who finds themselves thrown into this crazy existence on Planet Earth (this is all of us). And it's a good book for people who think tables and trees are awesome.
Oh, and here's a joke quoted from the book . . . Jean-Paul Sartre walks into a cafe, and the waiter asks what he'd like to order. Sartre replies, "I'd like a cup of coffee with sugar, but no cream." The waiter goes off, but comes back apologizing "I'm sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream. How about with no milk?"