University Press of America
Pages: 150
Trim: 6½ x 9½
978-0-7618-4042-8 • Hardback • August 2008 • $94.00 • (£72.00)
978-0-7618-4031-2 • Paperback • June 2008 • $48.99 • (£38.00)
Bernard Murchland is Professor of Philosophy at Ohio Wesleyan University and the Editor of The Civic Arts Review.
Chapter 1 Introduction: Remembering the Sixties
Chapter 2 Seeking the Good Life: Socrates' Erotic Revolution
Chapter 3 At Home in the Universe: The Stoics as Existentialists
Chapter 4 Senses of the Self: Augustine and the Ascent of the Soul
Chapter 5 Overcoming Alienation: Rousseau's Search for Authenticity
Chapter 6 Becoming Who We Are: Kierkegaard Against His Age (and Ours)
Chapter 7 Single in the Crowd: Thoreau's Existential Experiment at Walden Pond
Chapter 8 No Short Cut to Paradise: The Lonely Passion of William James
Chapter 9 Beyond Nihilism: Nietzsche and the Ethics of Utopia
Chapter 10 Between Solitude and Solidarity: The Two Worlds of Albert Camus
Chapter 11 The Desire to Be God: Sartre and the Winding Roads of Freedom
Chapter 12 Dramatist of a Broken World: The Soft Theism of Gabriel Marcel
Chapter 13 Thinking without Banisters: Hannah Arendt and the Face of Radical Evil
Chapter 14 Some After Words: A Message of Hope
Part 15 Bibliography
Bernard Murchland takes readers on a learned journey into a land of important questions and accessible answers.
— George Cotkin, author of Existential America and Feast of Excess
...Throughout he writes with a Graham Greene-like clarity of style. His book is informative, enjoyable to read and convincing. He makes the case that existentialism is indeed a perennial philosophy and one best suited to guide us through these dark times.
— Robert Flanagan, Poet and Novelist, author of Maggot and Naked to Naked Goes
All in all a fine piece of work, very well written and structured. Murchland's chapters on Socrates and the Stoics demonstrate that existentialism has deep historical roots.
— William McBride, Department of Philosophy, Purdue University
A rich foundation for understanding later existentialist movements....Mindful of the distinction between studies of subjectivity versus mere relativistic forms of subjectivism....Recommended. Two-star review.
— Choice Reviews, March 2009
Murchland presents his book in a style that is both beautifully written and personally engaging... His chapter on Albert Camus is excellent—well written, appropriately personal and right on target, especially his handling of the North African connection with Augustine and Plotinus. That adds a dimension to the study of Camus that is almost always missing.
— David Spritzen, author of Camus: A Critical Examination