Sartre Explained: From Bad Faith to Authenticity

by David Detmer

Overview

Jean-Paul Sartre is perhaps the most famous of the existentialists, and by far the most famous philosopher of the post-war era. Sartre was a highly prolific writer and thinker, and delving into his novels, plays, stories, essays, and memoirs can be challenging. Most books on Sartre focus on only one sphere of his astounding intellect — either his philosophical treatises or his forays into fiction. Enter Sartre Explained, a comprehensive guide to Sartre's versatile work, as well as a valuable overview of his life and scholarly context. Detailing the philosophical notions central to all of Sartre's work, including his fictional pieces, this guide is an essential resource for anyone interested in Sartre's full range of talents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812696318
Publisher:	Open Court Publishing Company
Publication date:	06/28/2008
Series:	Ideas Explained , #6
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Abbreviations     ix
Introduction     1
Sartre's Reputation     4
Why Read Sartre?     15
Phenomenology     17
The Transcendence of the Ego     19
Intentionality     29
The Emotions     35
Imagination and The Imaginary     46
Nausea     51
Absurdity     55
Life and Art     58
Why Write?     60
Being and Nothingness     63
Interrogation     65
Destruction     66
Absence     67
Anguish     70
Bad Faith     75
Knowledge     89
Others     92
The Body     96
Concrete Relations with Others     103
Freedom     110
Existential Psychoanalysis     122
Ethics     134
No Exit     143
A Philosophical Play     145
Bad Faith Dramatized     147
Hell Is Other People     149
Death     153
The Devil and the Good Lord     159
Atheism     162
Conversion     163
Good and Evil     165
Violence     169
Saint Genet     173
Existential Psychoanalysis Illustrated     174
Inventing the Homosexual Subject     178
Freedom and Facticity     178
Understanding that Overcomes Difference     181
Critique of Dialectical Reason     187
Marxism     188
Dialectic     189
Practico-Inert and Counter-Finality     191
The Progressive-Regressive Method     193
Criticisms of Marxism     194
Two Kinds of Freedom     196
Scarcity and Violence     198
Totalization     200
Series and Group     201
The Ethics of Violence     203
Inauthenticity     211
Propaganda     212
Priorities     213
Suggestions for Further Readings     217
By Sartre     217
About Sartre     224
Index     229

Editorial Reviews

“David Detmer’s Sartre Explained is undoubtedly the best introduction to Jean-Paul Sartre’s ideas available today. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Sartre.”
—Matthew Eshleman, Universityof North Carolina at Wilmington

“Detmer explores the implications of Sartre’s work both for ourselves and for our world, and in so doing he makes Sartre come alive. Sartre’s most complicated philosophical doctrines are rendered comprehensible without sacrificing rigor, and his most counterintuitive political positions are shown to be more compelling than they are often taken to be.”
—David Sherman, author of Sartre and Adorno

“Detmer has managed to boil down Sartre without losing any of the flavor. This readable book, written in lucid and lively prose, straightforwardly addresses the hard, important issues in Sartre.”
—T Storm Heter, author of Sartre’s Ethics of Engagement

“Detmer’s Sartre Explained convincingly demonstrates how important Sartre is for us today, and places Sartre front and center as a giant of the twentieth century whose stature will be felt well beyond the twenty-first. Detmer’s deft treatment of Sartre’s most abstruse ideas, and his use of creative examples to tackle difficult problems and concepts, makes this a most welcome and inviting guide for those unfamiliar with Sartre’s work. Scholars will appreciate the depth of analysis and rigor.”
—Gail E. Linsenbard, author of An Investigation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Posthumously Published Notebooks for an Ethics

"Detmer (philosophy, Purdue U. Calumet) introduces the work of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80), explaining how his writings on existentialism, his fiction and plays, and his political activism were all part of his attempt to describe the salient features of human existence such as freedom, responsibility, emotions, human relations, work, and death."
—Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR

From the Publisher