Going into this book I had a sort of vague idea of what existentialism was (which turned out to be misinformed) and I was curious to read more about philosophy in general. This book took a refreshing approach – it was accessible, didn’t get hung up on the technical/academic terms, and outright told you when things are hard to understand.
Sometimes when reading I get confused and think – should I have known that? Is this something I ignored in a university class years ago? The writer of this book lets us off the hook by pointing out when things are getting “out there”. Thank you very much!
This is a long, wide ranging book and I don’t think I could do it justice by summarizing it here. Rather, I’ll say that it does a great job of filling in the backstory of existentialism, with history, social background, and the egos behind some of the big voices in that area of philosophy.
There were plenty of interesting parts – I really felt like I was pulled back into that era and the author’s style makes it interesting without the reader having to wade through these huge dense tomes of learning (some volumes were over 2000 (!) pages long.)
What I got out of this book was another way to look at how to live your life, what it means to make decisions and be responsible for them, and just how difficult it can be for free thinkers pushing the boundaries of new ideas. Throw in a couple of world wars, the rise and fall of Communism, and it all makes for a great story and an educational read.
While reading I highlighted many passages that seemed memorable to me, and I’m sure I’ll come back to them in the future. One particular one was a quote by Jean-Paul Sartre, who together with Simone de Beauvoir was giving his thoughts on atheist philosophy near the end of his life.
“He said that, on the whole, the two of them had lived without paying much attention to God. She agreed. Then he said, ‘And yet we’ve lived; we feel that we’ve taken an interest in our world and that we’ve tried to see and understand it.’ To do this freshly and (mostly) intelligently for seven decades is an achievement more than worthy of celebration.”
I thought that was a solid (if not modest) interpretation of their impact on the world and the way they lived in it. Goals like these seem modest enough for regular people, I’d say.
Next I am reading Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells.
