Irrational Man: A Study In Existential Philosophy
Irrational Man subtitled "A Study In Existential Philosophy" is an influential book by William Barrett published in 1958 which served to introduce existentialism to the English speaking world. His writing style is conversational, and he takes time to define terms and give the reader background on philosophical terms and concepts, so this book is aimed at a general reader curious about the topic.
The need for a native English speaker to write a text on existentialist philosophy was paramount for its understanding, since most of the primary philosophers in this movement were not native English speakers. While Kierkegaard's works had been translated several decades earlier, the full impact of existential philosophy had not yet been felt in the English speaking world when this book was produced. Jean Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness had been available in English for only a couple of years, Kaufmann's translation of Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra had been out only a few more, and Heidegger's Being and Time had not yet been translated into English.
Read more about Irrational Man: A Study In Existential Philosophy: Organization of The Book
Famous quotes containing the words irrational, study, existential and/or philosophy:
“For a woman to get a rewarding sense of total creation by way of the multiple monotonous chores that are her daily lot would be as irrational as for an assembly line worker to rejoice that he had created an automobile because he tightened a bolt.”
—Edith Mendel Stern (1901–1975)
“An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what nature understands by a buttress, and what by a dome.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“No phallic hero, no matter what he does to himself or to another to prove his courage, ever matches the solitary, existential courage of the woman who gives birth.”
—Andrea Dworkin (b. 1946)
“Nature in darkness groans
And men are bound to sullen contemplation in the night:
Restless they turn on beds of sorrow; in their inmost brain
Feeling the crushing wheels, they rise, they write the bitter words
Of stern philosophy & knead the bread of knowledge with tears & groans.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)