Irrational Man  

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"The story is told (by Kierkegaard) of the absent-minded man so abstracted from his own life that he hardly knows he exists until, one fine morning, he wakes up to find himself dead. It is a story that has a special point today, since this civilization of ours has at last got its hands on weapons with which it could easily bring upon itself the fate of Kierkegaard's hero: we could wake up tomorrow morning dead—and without ever having touched the roots of our own existence. There is by this time widespread anxiety and even panic over the dangers of the atomic age; but the public soul-searching and stocktaking rarely, if ever, go to the heart of the matter."--incipit to Irrational Man (1958) by William Barrett


"Parmenides and Heraclitus were visionaries and seers. Parmenides wrote in verse, and his poem opens by describing itself as the account of a vision vouchsafed by the goddess, who has taken the poet in her chariot beyond the portals of the day and night. Heraclitus' sayings are dark and oracular, and they are meant to be taken as oracles visionary disclosures of the real. The Greek word for "I know," oida, is the perfect of the verb "to see" and means "I have seen."--Irrational Man (1958) by William Barrett

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Irrational Man: A Study In Existential Philosophy (1958) is an influential book by William Barrett which served to introduce existentialism to the English speaking world. His writing style is conversational, and he takes time to define terms and give the reader background on philosophical terms and concepts, so this book is aimed at a general reader curious about the topic.

On the cover of some editions is L'Homme qui marche I (1961), a sculpture by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti.

The need for a native English speaker to write a text on existentialist philosophy was paramount for its understanding, since most of the primary philosophers in this movement were not native English speakers. While Kierkegaard's works had been translated several decades earlier, the full impact of existential philosophy had not yet been felt in the English speaking world when this book was produced. Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness had been available in English for only a couple of years, Walter Kaufmann's translation of Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra had been out only a few more, and Martin Heidegger's Being and Time had not yet been translated into English.

Contents

Organization of the book

In the four parts of the book, Barrett explains in brief the philosophical tradition to which existentialism was a reaction, and then the main concepts of existential thought.

Part one – "The Present Age"

This part shows the impact that existentialism has had on culture even without being a widely known philosophical school of thought.

Part two – Sources of Existentialism

This part traces the development of philosophy (and is a good overview of the subject) as it pertains to being, ontology, and metaphysics. This serves to show the contrast between existentialist thought and other forms of philosophy.

Part three – The Existentialists

The four main philosophical thinkers are introduced, along with their primary thoughts and terminology.

  1. Kierkegaard
  2. Nietzsche
  3. Heidegger
  4. Sartre

The discussion of each philosopher serves as a road map for those seeking an entre into the primary works of each, which can be dense with unique terminology. (Particularly Heidegger and Sarte.) The material in each of these four sections summarizes the main points each philosopher contributed to existentialism. The reactions of one philosopher to another is also explored. (Again, particularly Heidegger and Sartre.) The philosophers are also situated in the larger history of philosophical investigations outside of existentialism itself.

Barrett concentrates on these main philosophers and avoids an in-depth discussion (although he does mention some) of the many of the existentialist artists, writers, etc.

Part four – Integral vs Rational Man

This last, short part applies existentialist thought to the world of the late 1950s, during the Cold War.

Appendices

  1. Appendix one is "Negation, Finitude, and the Nature of Man" which was a paper presented by the author in 1957.
  1. Appendix two is a discussion of existentialism and analytic philosophy. (This is not for the general reader.)


See also




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