The Bloomsbury Companion to Existentialism

by Joseph, Felicity; Reynolds, Jack; Woodward, Ashley

• ISBN13: 9781472567833
• ISBN10: 1472567838
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-11-20
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The Bloomsbury Companion to Existentialism offers the definitive guide to a key area of modern European philosophy. Now available in paperback, the book covers the fundamental questions asked by existentialism, providing valuable guidance for students and researchers to some of the many important and enduring contributions of existentialist thinkers. Chapters from an international team of experts explore existentialism's relationship to philosophical method; ontology; politics; psychoanalysis; ethics; religion; literature; emotion; feminism and sexuality; emotions; authenticity and the self; its significance in Latin American culture; and its contribution to the development of post-structuralism and cognitive science. In addition, five short chapters summarize the status of canonical figures Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre and de Beauvoir, delineating the historical approach to their work, while pointing to new directions such research is now taking.

Featuring a series of indispensable research tools such as an A to Z glossary, a timeline of key events, texts and thinkers in existentialism, a list of resources and an annotated guide to further reading, this Companion is an essential resource to help the new reader navigate through the heart of Existentialism and modern European philosophy.

Author Biography

Jack Reynolds is Chair of Philosophy at Deakin University, Australia. He has written four books: Chronopathologies: The Politics of Time in Deleuze, Derrida, Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology (2012), Analytic Versus Continental: Arguments on the Methods and Value of Philosophy (2010, with James Chase), Merleau-Ponty and Derrida: Intertwining Embodiment and Alterity (2004), and Understanding Existentialism (2006). He has also co-edited five collections: Sartre: Key Concepts (2013), Postanalytic and Metacontinental: Crossing Philosophical Divides (2010), Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts (2008) and Understanding Derrida (Continuum 2004).

Felicity Joseph teaches philosophy at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Ashley Woodward is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Dundee, UK. He is a founding member of The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy, and an editor of Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy. He is author of Understanding Nietzscheanism (2011), Nihilism in Postmodernity: Lyotard, Baudrillard, Vattimo (2010), editor of Interpreting Nietzsche (2011) and co-editor of Sensorium: Aesthetics, Art, Life (2007) and Gilbert Simondon: Being and Technology (2012).

Table of Contents

Contributors
1. Introduction Felicity Joseph, Jack Reynolds and Ashley Woodward (University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy, Australia)
2. Existentialism, Phenomenology and Philosophical Method Felicity Joseph and Jack Reynolds (University of Melbourne and La Trobe University, Australia)
Part I: Current Research and Issues
3. Existentialism, Metaphysics and Ontology Christian Onof (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)
4. Existentialism and Politics David Sherman (University of Montana, USA)
5. Existentialism, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Douglas Kirsner (Deakin University, Australia)
6. Existentialism and Ethics Debra Bergoffen (George Mason University, USA)
7. Existentialism and Religion George Pattison (University of Oxford, UK)
8. Existentialism and Literature Colin Davis (Royal Holloway College, University of London, UK)
9. Existentialism, Feminism and Sexuality Marguerite La Caze (University of Queensland, Australia)
10. Existentialism and the Emotions Suzanne L. Cataldi (Southern Illinois University, USA)
11. Existentialism, Authenticity and the Self Christopher Macann
12. Existentialism and Latin America Roberto Domingo Toledo (Stony Brook University, USA)
Part II: New Directions
13. Existentialism and Cognitive Science Michael Wheeler and Ezequiel Di Paolo (University of Stirling, UK and University of the Basque Country, Spain)
14. Existentialism and Poststructuralism: Some Unfashionable Observations Jack Reynolds and Ashley Woodward (La Trobe University and Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy, Australia)
15. Recent Developments in Scholarship on Key Existentialists
I. Kierkegaard William McDonald (University of New England, USA)
II. Nietzsche Keith Ansell-Pearson (University of Warwick, UK)
III. Heidegger Andrew J. Mitchell (Emory University, USA)
IV. Sartre Peter Gratton (University of San Diego, USA)
V. De Beauvoir Laura Hengehold (Case Western Reserve University, USA)
Part III: Resources
16. A–Z Glossary
17. A Chronology of Key Events, Texts and Thinkers
18. Research Resources in Existentialism
19. Annotated Guide to Further Reading
Index