What Is Existentialism? Vol. II : Essential Distinctions & Conclusion

The term "existentialism" was coined in the 1940s. Whereas other books regarding existentialism merely repeat the platitudes that "There is no such thing as existentialism" or that "The term 'existentialism' has no coherent meaning," this book actually answers the question "What is existentialism?"

Volume I introduces readers to the depth of the problem indicated by the question, "What is existentialism?" identifying the seven (7) principles of existentialism and the necessary and sufficient conditions for a philosophy to be existential. Vol. I, then, provides the "archaeological" answer to the question by showing the philosophical framework existentialism inherited from transcendental philosophy. Vol. I also provides the "genealogical" answer by tracing the history of the thematization of this framework through German Romanticism, concluding with an illustration of how the major existential philosophers: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and Marcel, expressed and developed the principles of existentialism.

Volume II provides a discussion of essential distinctions with which to understand and think about existentialism, including a discussion of existentialism as a kind of character ethics, existentialism as a critique of Descartes' philosophy, the difference between existential individuality and Modern subjectivity, and a discussion of the "moment of vision." Vol. II concludes with a discussion of how existential philosophy takes be-ing, as an end-in-itself, as its point of origin. Vol. II also provides a number of helpful appendices. These appendices address some miscellaneous, though important, concerns regarding existentialism, and provide charts illustrating the interrelations between the key concepts of existentialism.