Justifying Our Existence
An Essay in Applied Phenomenology
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2009
- Category
- General
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780802099297
- Publish Date
- Mar 2009
- List Price
- $75.00
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780802096203
- Publish Date
- Feb 2009
- List Price
- $40.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781442693296
- Publish Date
- Feb 2009
- List Price
- $29.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781442688421
- Publish Date
- Feb 2009
- List Price
- $66.00
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Description
In his magnum opus Being in Time (1927), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) argued that individuals have assumed that their existence is "a given," when in actual fact they simply have the ability to be. Justifying Our Existence examines the ways in which human beings attempt to calm their existential concerns by magnifying and proving their existence through phenomena such as self-righteousness, careerism, nationalism, and religion.
Using remarkably accessible and concise writing, Graeme Nicholson provides a close reading of Heidegger's methods to indicate how his work has a practical application for existential concerns. Justifying Our Existence shows how phenomenology can be used to foreground existence, while also providing startling insights into human behaviour, the motivation behind many of our social systems, as well as one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers.
About the author
Graeme Nicholson is a professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto.
