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There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest - whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories - comes afterward. These are games; one must first answer.
My question to you is, what books should be in this box set? What books from the great thinkers do you find particularly life-affirming or would you turn to for an epiphany or reasons to live life to it's fullest?
Off the cuff, scent de existent, without it you stink of the oblivious.
Buy our perfume today and start existing:)
Let's try to keep the content of our posts in the phil101 section to academic reference rather than opinion. Could you suggest any existentialist reading to Crab Nicholson for his project?
For one reason of another, although many of these books might contain dark passages, for me they have also inspired passion, critical self-reflection, reaction to slumber, and I guess in that sense life-affirmance. They're not really 'existential' books as filled in the library, but as they reflect on the human condition in a critical fashion one could argue that they are very existential. All authors, apart from 3, were writing in the twentieth century which gives the list a contemporary feel for the living searching individual. Literature and poetry have not been included. The list is not exhaustive and follows in no particular order of importance. I have only included one book from each author. Hope it helps a little:
Arthur Schopenhauer: The World as Will and Representation
Friedrich Nietzsche: On the Genealogy of Moral
Karl Marx: The German Ideology
Erich Fromm: The Fear of Freedom
Victor Frankle: Man's Search for Meaning
Martin Heidegger: Being & Time
Herbert Marcuse: One-Dimensional Man
Michel Foucault: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings
Bertrand Russell: In Praise of Idleness
Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent
Alan W Watts: The Way of Zen
Wow, these are fantastic responses, and exactly what I needed. VideCorSpoon, qualia and Deckard in particular have gone above and beyond to help, so seriously, thanks. I have duly noted all of the books suggested and your reasons why, I will now begin to research them and narrow down the list to the final box set, once that is done I will pluck an inspiring quote from each book to use on their front covers (any help with this would be great). The box set will then be designed and put together.
Really, thank you for all of your feedback and compliments, I am really excited with the direction of this project and i'm glad the philosophy community here supports my ideas. It seems sad to me that careful reading and meditation isn't used more to deal with depression and life crisis when i'm sure there are times when simply reading a book would be quicker and less damaging than a course of psych-meds or expensive therapy.
I truly appreciate your help, but i'm not closed to suggestions, any further advice, particularly with quotes from the texts would be great.
I will now begin to research them and narrow down the list to the final box set, once that is done I will pluck an inspiring quote from each book to use on their front covers (any help with this would be great).