Dimensions
140 x 210 x 13mm
Pope Pius XII condemned Existentialism for its 'terrifying nihilism'. Anguish, despair, absurdity, nothingness - these concepts still have a power to scandalise. But has Existentialism's popular appeal got in the way of the useful things it has to say?
Richard Appignanesi goes in personal quest of Existentialism in its original state. He begins with Camus' question of suicide: 'Must life have a meaning to be lived?' Is absurdity at the heart of Existentialism? Or is Sartre right: is Existentialism 'the least scandalous, most technically austere' of all teachings?