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Bob Solomon on Existentialism and Being and Nothingness

December 7, 2011 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

We've often name-dropped our former U. of Texas professor Bob Solomon, perhaps best known for his great original work The Passions or his appearance in the Richard Linklater film, Waking Life. For our Hegel episode, I was clutching tightly to his work explaining it: In the Spirit of Hegel.

One of his central philosophical concerns was Sartre's view of freedom and responsibility, and his take on existentialism always seemed to climax at that point. Here he is introducing the major themes of existentialism.

Watch on YouTube.

In this audio clip, he lays out themes in Being and Nothingness and explains why the book is such a convoluted read: Sartre read Heidegger but wants to put Heidegger's insights within the French tradition of focusing on consciousness going back to Descartes.

Listen on YouTube.

So, yes, I stole my analogy of consciousness as a flashlight without the beam from this clip. It comes from Solomon's series of audio lectures, "No Excuses."

To experience a guided introduction to Being and Nothingness, please purchase my Close Reading audio on its first pages.

-Mark Linsenmayer

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Filed Under: Things to Watch, Web Detritus Tagged With: existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, philosophy blog, philosophy podcast, Robert Solomon

Comments

  1. Daniel Horne says

    December 7, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    Nice. I was a happy customer buying the “No Excuses” seminar as an audio download from the Great Courses site:

    http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=437

    (HINT: Wait for it to go on sale, or check out pirated uploads to YouTube.)

    I used to think the Great Courses series was corny, but actually I’m now sold on the product. As long as it’s a good professor you’re downloading (unfortunately there are rarely previews), there’s some great stuff available.

    Solomon also recorded (with his wife) a series of lectures on Nietzsche for the same site, which you can download relatively cheaply:

    http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=415

    Reply
  2. Alan Thomas says

    November 8, 2020 at 1:42 am

    Just rewatched “Waking Life”–it’s one of my favorites, and that’s really cool you had him as a professor. I’m curious to know what you guys think of the film overall? Per Google, it doesn’t seem you’ve discussed it (this is all that really comes up).

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Philosophical Mavericks: Pirsig, MacIntyre, Solomon, Bergmann | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    July 17, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    […] crucial philosophical influences in my undergraduate and graduate years were Frithjof Bergmann and Robert Solomon respectively (Bergmann having been the graduate advisor at Michigan to Solomon, who then went on to […]

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