Bøger af Donald D. (Donald D. Palmer) Palmer

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard was one of the most original thinkers of the nineteenth century - and one of the most enigmatic men who ever walked the earth. Philosophically, Kierkegaard was the "bridge" that led from Hegel to Existentialism. Kierkegaard abhorred Hegel's abstract, know-it-all idealism that tried to capture reality in a few words. Kierkegaard's attack on social and religious complacency and his single-handed assault on traditional Western philosophy generated a crisis that produced a radically new way of philosophizing and made him the founder of the school that would later be called Existentialism. To Kierkegaard, reality was personal, subjective - it began and ended with the individual - and philosophy was not something one merely talked about, it was the way you lived. For such a brilliant thinker, the way Kierkegaard lived was ... somewhat too interesting. His "abstract" love affair? His obsession with death? His "Leap of Faith", his cynicism, his marvellous sense of humor - how do you put all that into one man?

Sartre For Beginners is an accessible yet sophisticated introduction to the life and works of the famous French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre. Sartre was a member of the French underground during WWII, a novelist, a playwright, and a major influence in French political and intellectual life.The book opens with a biographical section, introducing the significant events in the life of the man who coined the term "existentialism."Then it examines Sartre's early philosophical works. Ideas from Sartre's other fictional and dramatic works are discussed, but the greatest part is the presentation of the main concepts from Sartre's Being and Nothingness (1943). These include the topics of consciousness, freedom, responsibility, absurdity, "bad faith," authenticity, and the hellish confrontation with other people.Finally, the book deals with Sartre's modification of his early existentialism to compliment his conversion to a kind of "existential" Marxism.Sartre For Beginners summarizes the work of the most renown philosopher of the 20th Century.