Existentialism: A Reconstruction

Utilizing recently published primary sources, David Cooper aims to provide an account of the mainstream movement of philosophical thought, reconstructed from the writings of Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and others. Existentialism is viewed as the attempt to overcome various forms of alienation: from the world, one another and oneself. The early chapters describe existential phenomenology, on the basis of which the dualisms of Cartesian metaphysics are dissolved . Discussions of the self and of others, and of Angst and absurdity, lead into chapters on existential freedom and the prospects for an existentialist ethic. Writers discussed include Husserl, Jaspers, Buber, Marcel and Ortega. The book is intended to be useful for courses in both analytic and continental philosophy.