How existentialism in post-war Paris finds meaning amid absurdity

Existentialism in post-war Paris is a family of philosophical views exploring the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. The word existentialism was not coined until the mid 20th century, when it became most associated with contemporaneous philosophers including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

3 articles, 1 book · about 2 hr 58 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   "Existentialism" · plato.stanford.edu · 60+ min read

   Existentialism generally begins amidst situated, first-person experience rather than theoretical detachment and objectivity. It examines how people engage with the world in everyday life and struggle to make sense of and give meaning to their existence.

2. Read
   existentialism in post-war paris · Wikipedia · 51 min read

   In Sartre's 1944 existentialist play No Exit, three people realize they are there to torture each other by probing each other's sins, desires, and unpleasant memories. Stanley Kubrick's 1957 anti-war film Paths of Glory examines existentialism through the "necessary absurdity of the human condition" and the "horror of war". It also examines existentialist ethics, including whether objectivity is possible and the "problem of authenticity".

3. Read
   "Existentialism" · iep.utm.edu · 60+ min read

   An outline of existentialism's themes and philosophers, with context on anxiety, freedom, situatedness, absurdity and the crowd in post-war Paris.

4. Book
   

   Nausea · Bookshop.org

   Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre tells the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer horrified at his own existence, and describes how he catalogues his feelings and sensations in diary form. Roquentin's efforts to come to terms with his life dramatize Sartre's Existentialist creed.

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