Existentialism Is a Humanism
by Jean-Paul Sartre · first published 2007
60% recommend40% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, clear introduction to existentialism that explains its core ideas in plain terms. It is readable for newcomers and serves as a good starting point before tackling harder existentialist or philosophy texts.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"It was to correct common misconceptions about his thought that Sartre accepted an invitation to speak on October 29, 1945, at the Club Maintenant in Paris. The unstated objective of his lecture ("Existentialism Is a Humanism") was to expound his philosophy as a form of "existentialism," a term much bandied about at the time. Sartre asserted that existentialism was essentially a doctrine for philosophers, though, ironically, he was about to make it accessible to a general audience. The published text of his lecture quickly became one of the bibles of existentialism and made Sartre an internati
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This is a great list. Why no Greeks? Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics at least! I would add Sartre’s “Existentialism is a Humanism” as a short and readable intro to existentialism, followed by kierkegaard’s Being and Nothingness and Nietzche…maybe The Gay Science? (I am biased towards existentialism) EDIT I’m sure to get carried…
on “Ask HN: Learning about philosophy” ↗The ones I've read and find good: - Existentialism is a Humanism - Jean Paul Sartre : Very easy to read and is a very good introduction to existentialism. - Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche - Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗On the philosophical side, I sugget "Existentialism Is a Humanism" by Sartre: it explains in a clear and simple way the idea of Existentialism, which is a great philosophy based on strong principles, and a key idea in the modern philosophical debate. It somehow changed…
on “Ask HN: Good books?” ↗You might like to read the transcription of Sartre's lecture "Existentialism is a Humanism." It's available online at https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exis... . He wrote a lot on how to reconcile living in a world that he believed was devoid of inherent meaning and the…
on “Ferrolic” ↗…Hume's: A Treatise of Human Nature and/or An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 5) Nietchze, The gay science (meaning "the joyful science") 6) Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations 7) Existentialism Is a Humanism, Sartre 8) The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper 9) Against Method, Paul Feyerabend
on “Ask HN: Learning about philosophy” ↗"existentialism is concerned with the emptiness, horrors and anxieties of being alive" You're mistaken to think so about existantialism. I suggest you read "Existentialism is a Humanism [1]", which is a document I've studied very recently and one that I'll study again, and one has been influential to me. Existantialism is an idea based on the hypothesis that man exists without a purpose,…
on “Who Was Kafka?” ↗…Anarchist Banker of Pessoa. It gives an interesting answer to the question of "existing in a world as a single individual that can hardly ameliorate the world on his own". Combining that with a reading of "Existentialism is a Humanism", and general free thinking, do help to build a strong defence mechanism to the facts of the outer world that can demotivate you. I'm quite an outlier in this community of mostly engineers and entrepreneurs,…
on “Ask HN: What book/paper/link keeps you motivated?” ↗…examples of this line of thinking (note: European and older, so those works were like Star Wars movies to us at the time, in the sense that everybody read them, not just students dressed in black). The "Existentialism is a Humanism" presents a more "heroic" outlook of the matter, associated with Sartre's engagement with politics at the time. Even so it deals with anxiety, lack of values, etc. That "in fashioning himself, fashions…
on “Who Was Kafka?” ↗…there is no such predetermined essence to be found in humans, and that an individual's essence is defined by him or her through how he or she creates and lives his or her life. As Sartre puts it in his Existentialism is a Humanism: "man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards." " Disclaimer: just pulled from wikipedia.
on “A Psychological Exploration of Engagement in Geek Culture” ↗…contemplative philosophy. Moreover, since contemplation is a luxury, this would be only another bourgeois philosophy. This is, especially, the reproach made by the Communists" -- Sartre, second paragraph of Existentialism is a Humanism, https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exis...
on “2020's Existentialist Turn” ↗…characterized by the three feelings of despair, forelorness, and anguish", then I should have an in-text citation (a footnote in the Chicago style, one of those parentheticals in MLA) referring to Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism essay.
on “Plagiarized in a plagiarism atonement essay” ↗…be asking the question here. The two books you mention in the question (Common Sense and "On the Fourfold Root") are both quite readable, as are a few of the primary texts mentioned in the responses ("Existentialism is a Humanism", "Thus Spoke Zarathustra") but in general, I'd have to suggest you stay away from primary texts at first. In other words, begin by reading works about philosophy, rather than works of philosophy. A…
on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗