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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
Would love to come back to this as an audio book. Too many names and complicated sentences to stay focused on while reading at the beach.
When I was in high school, I happened on a copy of [b:Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy|83321|Irrational Man A Study in Existential Philosophy|William Barrett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415956528s/83321.jpg|80452], an influential survey of existentialist philosophy. I'm not sure if it was the first philosophy book I read, but I remember its exhilarating challenge of radical, personal freedom and accountability in the face of a world that could be hostile and absurd.
Sarah Bakewell takes me back to the rush of that first encounter with philosophy as a means of fully engaging with life and not just abstract ideas. This is more than an just a history of ideas. Bakewell brings the players to life with all their brilliance and foibles, their loves and quarrels. The "great conversation" of ideas takes place in an imaginary café, just as Sartre, Beauvoir, and the others wrote, discussed, debated, and drank in Parisian cafés from the 20's onward. I particularly appreciate being introduced to new friends: Edmund Husserl who laid the groundwork for phenomenology, which favors an attentiveness to experience that sets aside presuppositions and beliefs; and Merleau-Ponty whose work expanded on psychology of perception. While the existentialist movement was primarily a mid-20th century phenomenon, its influence has become deeply embedded in popular culture.
If you miss the late nights in college where your friends debated issues, politics, and ideas into the wee hours, spend a few evenings at the café and meet some new friends. You will not be disappointed.
Sarah Bakewell takes me back to the rush of that first encounter with philosophy as a means of fully engaging with life and not just abstract ideas. This is more than an just a history of ideas. Bakewell brings the players to life with all their brilliance and foibles, their loves and quarrels. The "great conversation" of ideas takes place in an imaginary café, just as Sartre, Beauvoir, and the others wrote, discussed, debated, and drank in Parisian cafés from the 20's onward. I particularly appreciate being introduced to new friends: Edmund Husserl who laid the groundwork for phenomenology, which favors an attentiveness to experience that sets aside presuppositions and beliefs; and Merleau-Ponty whose work expanded on psychology of perception. While the existentialist movement was primarily a mid-20th century phenomenon, its influence has become deeply embedded in popular culture.
If you miss the late nights in college where your friends debated issues, politics, and ideas into the wee hours, spend a few evenings at the café and meet some new friends. You will not be disappointed.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Some of the history felt a bit dragging but overall an inspiring and accessible entry to existentialism and phenomenonolgy
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Camus can do, but Sartre was smartre.
A very entertaining biography of the crucial figures surrounding the development of phenomenology and existentialism that combines philosophical discourse with juicy gossip and a few jokes at everyone's expense. The kind of book I wish I'd read when I was sixteen and in a sort of tidal-contact with existentialism - knowing of it, reading a little here and there, but making no commitments. It would've really helped me then, but here is now.
de Beauvoir was probably the author I was most familiar with coming into reading, but I didn't expect to like Sartre as much as I did, having thought Nausea and No Exit were both only okay. He sounds like he would've been tremendously good fun to hang around with, and even in his later years where Bakewell grows more critical of his uncompromising ideology dismantling long friendships there is something clownish and sympathetic about him, perhaps because, regardless of his intelligence, he seemed so forthright and open as a person.
I also appreciate that Bakewell complains that Sartre deliberately chose to stop editing what he wrote later in his career, and only tangentially mentions his voracious amphetamine habit. Since she chose to read a lot of his later work in writing the book, I imagine she felt the need to express grievances toward his style, so she presents an obvious explanation for his declining quality-control without explicitly attaching it to her complaint. There are a number of small quirks in the book, mostly regarding de Beauvoir and Sartre's scandalous sex-lives, which I find fault with - Bakewell sidesteps the topic except when she can make an uneasy joke or two. I suppose I wouldn't want to read unsubstantiated hearsay, but the silence on these topics is something antithetical to the existentialist creed. Still, a breezy read that makes what can be painfully dull exciting again.
A very entertaining biography of the crucial figures surrounding the development of phenomenology and existentialism that combines philosophical discourse with juicy gossip and a few jokes at everyone's expense. The kind of book I wish I'd read when I was sixteen and in a sort of tidal-contact with existentialism - knowing of it, reading a little here and there, but making no commitments. It would've really helped me then, but here is now.
de Beauvoir was probably the author I was most familiar with coming into reading, but I didn't expect to like Sartre as much as I did, having thought Nausea and No Exit were both only okay. He sounds like he would've been tremendously good fun to hang around with, and even in his later years where Bakewell grows more critical of his uncompromising ideology dismantling long friendships there is something clownish and sympathetic about him, perhaps because, regardless of his intelligence, he seemed so forthright and open as a person.
I also appreciate that Bakewell complains that Sartre deliberately chose to stop editing what he wrote later in his career, and only tangentially mentions his voracious amphetamine habit. Since she chose to read a lot of his later work in writing the book, I imagine she felt the need to express grievances toward his style, so she presents an obvious explanation for his declining quality-control without explicitly attaching it to her complaint. There are a number of small quirks in the book, mostly regarding de Beauvoir and Sartre's scandalous sex-lives, which I find fault with - Bakewell sidesteps the topic except when she can make an uneasy joke or two. I suppose I wouldn't want to read unsubstantiated hearsay, but the silence on these topics is something antithetical to the existentialist creed. Still, a breezy read that makes what can be painfully dull exciting again.
adventurous
challenging
informative