At the Existentialist Café
Paris, 1933. Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse-- and ignite a movement, creating an entirely new philosophical approach inspired by themes of radical freedom, authentic being, and political activism: Existentialism. Interweaving biography and philosophy, Bakewell provides an investigation into what the existentialists have to offer us today, at a moment when we are once again confronting the major questions of freedom, global responsibility, and human authenticity in a fractious and technology-driven world.
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5recommend
11mentions
7people
2017–2023years
64% recommend36% neutral
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What Hacker News says
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- At the Existentialist Cafe
Currently working on "The Hot Zone."
- She was a sharp thinker, keenly introspective and bold. I would have imagined that she would appeal to the HN audience.
Beyond the Second Sex, which has significant status in the history of feminism, her autobiographical Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter and A Very Easy Death are beautiful reads that show her insight and self-awareness; I would recommend them.
For accessible general reading about the existentialists, including Beauvoir, I enjoyed At The Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell.
- Same here :)
Just started reading
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others by Sarah Bakewell
It has a really nice narrative and tells the story of the aforementioned. Kierkegaard also makes some occurrences.
- For Grass, he may have been condemned for actions at a young age.
For Heidegger, he was in his 40s and 50s during the Nazi regime. Also, I would recommend reading up on what he did to Husserl. A book that goes into detail about Heidegger's actions during World War II is here [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Existentialist_Cafe
- At the Existentialist Cafe by Bakewell I think is the best catch-all for phenomenology in many ways despite being part historical rather than full philosophy. Would highly recommend even if one is familiar with the usual suspects featured in it.
- At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
It's an amazing book on philosophy, history, and much more. It felt very relevant to current times. The philosophers in question lived around and through WWII and it examines how their ideas came about before and after as well.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25658482-at-the-existent...
