Existentialism is a Humanism

This is well-written, because it can be read by everyone and it´s full of thoughts. Thanks to this book, you can easily realize what one philosophical system means and on what grounds it stands. So if you are a layman to philosophy or existentialism, this is a good book for beginning.

But: existentialism is too optimistic about human nature and freedom. If you know a little bit about contemporary psychology, you know that what Sartre said in this book is probably just an illusion. But may be this illusion is necessary for human life.

This book is split into 3 distinct parts: an introduction, the main text which is a transcribe of the lecture Sartre gave "Existentialism is a humanism" with the question & answer session which followed, then a commentary on Camus's the Stranger. The introduction is really well written and unlike most introductions, didn't bore me to tears or put me off reading the book entirely. It gives a good grounding of the history and situations that prompted the lecture. The transcribe of the lecture I found was easy to read through and gives the reader an introduction to existentialism (the whole book is less than 100 pages, so is not a thorough study), although one of the 'questions' after the lecture was more like an interrogation and I found show more hard to follow. Aside from that I would recommend this book for anyone wanting to get a feel of existentialism, as I think reading this would help decide whether you wanted to read further & deeper on the subject. The commentary on The Stranger was insightful but would probably be of more interest if you've actually read The Stranger (which I haven't). show less

If you've read anything by Sartre or Camus you may have came away with a feeling that Existentialism is a philosophy of nihilism or despair. That, indeed, was one of the main criticisms of Sartre's philosophy in his day. In this lecture he speaks frankly about Existentialism and defends it against such criticisms, explaining that it is nothing of the sort, but rather a humanistic philosophy.

If you're interested in learning about Existentialism, this is an excellent short lecture to start with. It will leave you with many questions which can then be answered by a good intro such as Robert G. Olson's _Introduction to Existentialism_.

The real gem, however, of this particular edition is the inclusion of Sartre's literary review of Camus's show more _The Stranger_. I read The Stranger when I was 19 years old and didn't really think much of it. After reading this review I've started reading The Stranger again and I'm amazed at how much of an influence this little book had on my life. show less