# Favorite existentialist philosopher **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 26, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897 "2015-01-26T01:43:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khatruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Khatruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khatruid)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/1 "2015-01-26T01:43:57Z")
Vote here: Kierrgergard Nietchze Sartre Camus Husserl Heideger OTHER: ---
**Author:** ![Khatruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Khatruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khatruid)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/2 "2015-01-26T01:48:21Z")
I surely messed up my very first poll, here. ---
**Author:** ![Khatruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Khatruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khatruid)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/3 "2015-01-26T01:57:14Z")
I can’t do anything right. FML. Partial to Sartre (being in itself, being for itself, etc.), myself, as if that even matters. Regards, Khatruid The OP has apologized. Let’s give them a chance. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/4 "2015-01-26T03:25:23Z")
Camus was, at least, kind of readable… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/5 "2015-01-26T04:19:46Z")
Kierkegaard baby. (How was he missed in the poll?) Sartre’s “Being and Nothingness”? Talk to me about that… Like everything after page 2. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/6 "2015-01-26T04:49:50Z")
> [@Khatruid](#): > > I surely messed up my very first poll, here. Should you have or ought you to have? Oooops – that’s more sociology. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/7 "2015-01-26T06:02:24Z")
Camus was the least objectionable, but would’ve argued that he was not an existentialist (absurdism is the name). And at least more readable than Sartre. Sartre and Heidegger had some personal/political opinions that were objectionable at best, being apologists for brutal regimes. Nietzsche at least died before people could co-opt him but in retrospect he’s more quotable than inspiring. Never heard of Husserl, honestly. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Holdsworth_Effect)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/8 "2015-01-26T06:02:46Z")
Sinatra. Dooby, dooby, do. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/9 "2015-01-26T06:23:42Z")
I answered “other”. There’s too much focus on hero-worship and having to pick a favourite “leader” to get behind in philosophy. I think it’s detrimental to the propagation of new ideas (and indeed awareness of refutations of old ideas). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/10 "2015-01-26T07:35:24Z")
George Carlin, runner up, Kierkegaard ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/11 "2015-01-26T12:19:00Z")
- Kafka - Richard Wright (author of _Native Son_) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/12 "2015-01-26T15:14:27Z")
Torn between Nietzsche and Sartre, but I’ll give it to Freddie for the epic moustache… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/13 "2015-01-26T15:35:59Z")
All I know is Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/14 "2015-01-26T16:49:10Z")
> [@The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](#): > > Sinatra. Dooby, dooby, do. “Camus can do, but Sartre is smartre.” “Scooby Doo can doo doo, but Jimmy Carter is smarter.” ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/15 "2015-01-26T18:26:07Z")
[Relevant](http://existentialcomics.com/comic/58). ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/16 "2015-01-26T18:33:21Z")
My Philosophy 101 professor in college was good friends with Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. And that’s almost all I know about them! But I voted for Sartre. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/17 "2015-01-26T18:52:50Z")
What’s the point of voting? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/18 "2015-01-26T18:56:46Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > I answered “other”. > There’s too much focus on hero-worship and having to pick a favourite “leader” to get behind in philosophy. I think it’s detrimental to the propagation of new ideas (and indeed awareness of refutations of old ideas). It doesn’t have to be hero-worship though, does it? (And what’s this about ‘‘new ideas’’? Do those really exist?) Nietzsche is my favorite philosopher, in fact I get rather effusive when he is mentioned. I have a t-shirt that says ‘‘[Nietzsche is my co-pilot](http://amorphia-apparel.com/img450/copilot.png)’’ and he’s wearing aviator goggles and it’s awesome. I had an unusually large quantity of coursework on Nietzsche’s life and philosophy my freshman and sophomore years of college. I didn’t really plan it that way, I just took a freshman seminar on Nietzsche and it blew my fucking mind. It was my first exposure to philosophy, and that was a hell of an introduction (a rather misleading one, I might add.) While his writings have had a profound impact on my own life philosophy, I’d like to think my perspective is more nuanced than ''hero to emulate." Nietzsche was a sad, sick man, and his philosophy was a painfully transparent reflection of his own personal failings. His ideas were directly contradictory at times (_Birth of Tragedy_ vs. _Nietzsche Contra Wagner_, for example.) He was a flaming misogynist and a racist. No illusions. No hero-worship. I just can’t forget the first words I ever read by him: [QUOTE=The Parable of the Madman] “Where has God gone?” he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? …Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? [/QUOTE] That’s exactly what it feels like, you see, when you have a crisis of faith. [QUOTE=The Parable of the Madman] God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? …Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? **Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it?** There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto." [/QUOTE] (bolding mine) And there is the solution. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/19 "2015-01-26T19:07:52Z")
I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping Morrison ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897/20 "2015-01-26T23:06:53Z")
I think Nietchze (sp?) Has the best one-liners and his scathing contempt for religion is a plus, but Camus seems vastly more agreeable, and sane. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-existentialist-philosopher/710897.md?page=2)