Irrational Man: A Study in Existential PhilosophyWidely recognized as the finest definition of existentialist philosophy ever written, this book introduced existentialism to America in 1958. Barrett speaks eloquently and directly to concerns of the 1990s: a period when the irrational and the absurd are no better integrated than before and when humankind is in even greater danger of destroying its existence without ever understanding the meaning of its existence. Irrational Man begins by discussing the roots of existentialism in the art and thinking of Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, Baudelaire, Blake, Dostoevski, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Picasso, Joyce, and Beckett. The heart of the book explains the views of the foremost existentialists—Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre. The result is a marvelously lucid definition of existentialism and a brilliant interpretation of its impact. |
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abstract Aristotle artist atheism become Cartesian century Christian civilization concept concrete consciousness copula creature Cubism culture death Descartes Dionysus Dostoevski Enlightenment essence eternal ethical exis existential philosophy Existentialists experience face fact faith Faust finitude freedom German Greek Hebraism and Hellenism Hegel Heidegger Heidegger's human existence human person idea individual intellectual Kant Kierke Kierkegaard Laputa lived logic man's mankind matter meaning medieval merely mind modern art mood nature ness never Nietz Nietzsche Nietzsche's nihilism Nothingness object ordinary ourselves Parmenides Pascal passion perhaps philoso philosophers Plato poet Positivism problem Protestantism psychology question radical rational reality reason religion religious reveals Romanticism roots Sartre Sartre's sense social Socrates spirit Superman symbol tence Tertullian theory things thinker Thomists thought tion Tolstoy tradition truth ultimate unconscious understanding vision Western whole word writings Zarathustra