The Worlds of Existentialism: A Critical Reader

Maurice Friedman’s masterly anthology still stands apart decades after its original publication. It has become established as a classic - the most comprehensive collection of existentialist writing ever assembled. This edition includes a special preface by Professor Friedman surveying the developments in the field since this monumental work was first published and commenting on its relevance for present intellectual trends. The aim of this anthology is to elucidate the critical issues that exist among the existentialists, such as phenomenology and ontology, the existential subject, intersubjectivity, religion, and psychotherapy.To accomplish this aim Friedman has presented a large number of short selections from the most important existentialist writers and their forerunners, subsumed under these themes. Since this anthology is uniquely organised not by authors but by issues, the student should be able to recognise the various strains of existentialism, which Friedman views not as a single philosophy but a mood embracing a number of disparate philosophies, thus avoiding the easy labelling that distorts and oversimplifies this multifaceted movement.