The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection

Understand the concepts that shaped twentieth-century philosophy, theology, psychology, and art, with works by Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Existentialism was born in the nineteenth century and came of age in mid-twentieth-century France. Here, three major texts offer an introduction to the philosophy, which emphasizes individual existence, freedom, and personal responsibility while acknowledging the suffering and dread that can accompany our striving for such values.

Essays in Metaphysics: Identity and Difference by Martin Heidegger
In the two lectures translated here, Heidegger provides illuminating insights and touches upon many a vital issue, including our technological age, religion, language, history, and more. His receptiveness, sensitivity, and ability to be at the heart of the problem are represented here, offering a deeper appreciation of the teacher and man who gave the world works such as Being and Time.

The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir
The second major essay by the groundbreaking author of The Second Sex and a classic introduction to Existentialist thought, The Ethics of Ambiguity simultaneously pays homage to and grapples with de Beauvoir’s French contemporaries, philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, by arguing that the freedoms of existentialism carry certain ethical responsibilities. While contemplating nihilism, surrealism, existentialism, objectivity, and human values, de Beauvoir outlines a series of “ways of being” (the adventurer, the passionate person, the lover, the artist, and the intellectual) that allows us to live up to the responsibilities of freedom.

The Philosophy of Existentialism: Selected Essays by Jean-Paul Sartre
The Philosophy of Existentialism collects representative essays on Jean-Paul Sartre’s pioneering subject. Beginning with a thoughtful introduction by fellow French philosopher Jean Wahl, this work looks at existentialism through several lenses, exploring topics such as the emotions, imagination, nothingness, freedom, responsibility, and the desire to be God. By providing exposition on a variety of subjects—including aesthetics, emotions, writing, phenomenology, and perception—The Philosophy of Existentialism is a valuable introduction to Sartre’s ideas.