Reddit reviews Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, Revised and Expanded Edition

You're right that this isn't really the right sub per the first rule, however, since the rule concludes by saying:


> We are here to get smarter and better each other.

I'll take a stab at this one.


Out of the gate you sound pretty fucking depressed. You should check on that. If you're doing any drugs you should probably stop. Working out can help.


Anyway... Most uni curriculum is aimed at breadth of study so that you can find what interests you and build a base of industry knowledge. As such some of your coursework may have been uninteresting, irrelevant to you, or seemingly unconnected. The CFA program is fundamentally different as it is a professional qualification exam targeted at a specific sector within a specific industry. CFA is (from my understanding) mostly targeted to investment managers/HF/M&A types. Perhaps you've found your calling?In any case, the above is really the only apprehension I can address. The questions you pose here can't really be answered by me, or anyone else, but you might be able to reconcile them for yourself.


In my opinion, you should read this book which has selections from 'existentialist' philosophers of old. I like Nietzsche, but Notes from The Underground or some of Sartre's work might suit what you're going through better. Maybe the ending of Beyond Good and Evil


Good luck.

If ya like this sorta stuff, I'd recommend checkin' out my brotha-from-anotha-motha Karl Jaspers' essay On My Philosophy, which I found here. Really underrated in the opinion of yours truly.

he is saying both sort of. life has no meaning, but meaning isn't found within the struggle exactly, rather we exist in between the struggle and we create our own meaning. we are free, we have only to realize that the rules don't apply.

I can give you some advice for reading existentialism and also some places to start.

just curious, tho, how old are you?

there's several ways to approach reading philosophy.

method 1:
when reading philosophy of any kind you can get bogged down in the references and footnotes. when I was just starting out I would get so overwhelmed by things I didn't understand I would give up. don't give up. and don't worry about what you don't understand, just keep reading and see what you get out of it.

method 2:
BEFORE you read a book, read the Wikipedia page on it. back in the day I had to collect Coppleston's history of philosophy volumes to read commentary, but now it's online. so before you read, do some quick background reading so you know a) where the author is coming from/their general point of view/any important details about their life that pertain to understanding the book B) the author's main argument in the book - this will help you pick out his argument and understand it better.

3) some tips: a) read for pleasure. don't feel bad if you hate a book and just can't read it or make sense of it. sometimes later it makes more sense, but it's ok to hate a writer even if everyone else says they're amazing b) read with a pen or pencil in hand - underline things you like, write "I disagree" if you do, sometimes I even write "LOL" if it made me laugh and related to that B) take some notes as you go along whatever you think is important.. a sentence, a point, I use notes to restate in my own words the argument I just read... it helps me get it better and I have a reference in my own lingo that makes sense to me

where to start I would start with two books:

1. Donald Palmer "does the center hold? an intro to western philosophy"
   Amazon price ~2$
   
   get this book if you get no others!
   
   http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0073535753/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1462783700&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=does+the+center+hold&dpPl=1&dpID=51hxbBbmgzL&ref=plSrch
   
   
   2.Walter Kaufmann "existentialism: from Dostoyevsky to Sartre"
   Amazon price 11$
   
   http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0452009308/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1462783302&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=walter+kaufmann&dpPl=1&dpID=41lkh1kWkeL&ref=plSrch
   
   after that, depends on what you want to learn, but after the above I would read "Notes from Underground" by Dostoyevsky
   
   then maybe: JD Salinger "Catcher in the Rye"
   
   this was how I learned... after those two I went back chronologically and read Plato(he's foundational and easy enough to grasp), Kierkegaard, Dostoyesky, Camus and Sartre, then I started skipping around once I had a foundation.
   
   with existentialism the important thing to remember is that it isn't an exact philosophy. it was at first a reaction against exact philosophies with prescriptive definitions to how we should live. existentialism, rather, is a shared angst (Wikipedia Kierkegaard Angst) about life, an anxiety in the face of the meaninglessness of life. life has no meaning. now what? if life has no meaning, then all the rules are arbitrary, and you are truly free. free to do and be whatever you want.
   
   good luck on your quest, it's a worthy one.
   
   and my last piece of advice is this: there's no hurry... if a book takes you a year to digest, that's fine! if another takes you a week, ok! another might require 2 months. don't rush, digest the argument and internalize it.
   
   and I'm around on Reddit all the time if you have questions. and don't let philosophy snobs tells you you have to blah blah blah... philosophy should be accessible to all, otherwise it's a stupid endeavor.
   
   again.. good luck.
   

Hmm, the last new thing I read? Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre
If I include rereads, I'm currently rereading Lev Grossman's The Magician King

If you want a more general introduction into philosophy there's a Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy by Simon Blackburn and the older What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy by Thomas Nagel. A more academic introduction (the last two books are more aimed at a general audience) is Fundamentals of Philosophy edited by John Shand. If you're willing to sit through it there also Russel's classic A History of Western Philosophy, which is a sort of introduction to philosophy through the history of the field (the audiobook is on youtube btw), and there also his Problems of Philosophy

I'm not that familiar with eastern philosophy, but a classic introduction to Existentialism is Walter Kaufmann's Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre and it should go nicely with Existentialism is a Humanism.

Hope this helps :)

There are so many ways into the western tradition that it kind of depends on your interests - do you like to think about ethics, politics, art, technology, questions of reality? Not knowing, here are some very general suggestions: Try Plato (anything), Descartes' Medititations (very readable), Jorge Luis Borges (fictional philosophy, speculative), Hannah Arendt (great writer, more recent). Or find a philosophy college intro textbook with a collection of authors and texts, and see what catches your fancy, then follow those interests further. A secondary source that is a good entre is Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy series amazon link - he's a clear writer and rather entertaining too.

P.S. I was thinking back to my HS days and I think I was really into Dostoyevsky and existentialism... and I think I began with a book called Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre by Walter Kaufmann, a classic intro with excerpts from each philosopher's works, amazon here. Kaufmann's intro to the book is a good read.

P.P.S. I just remembered that I wrote this blog post about your question a long time ago:
Our Top 5 Philosophy Classics for High School and College Students. Enjoy!

I am by no means an expert, I admittedly know little on this subject.

When I was interested in this in high school, I read the following book:
http://www.amazon.com/Existentialism-Dostoevsky-Revised-Expanded-Edition/dp/0452009308/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I thought the selections were quite good, but I would probably skip Kaufmann's commentary. I'm told his interpretations of these thinkers are controversial, to say the least.

If you read something you like from this book, I would read the texts the selections are from.

THE book that got me into Philosophy is Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre which "provides basic writings of Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Rilke, Kafka, Ortega, Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus, including some not previously translated, along with an invaluable introductory essay by editor Walter Kaufmann."