Books like Being and Nothingness

01

Existentialism Is a Humanism

Jean-Paul Sartre · Philosophy

Existentialism Is a Humanism began as a 1945 lecture Sartre gave to a packed Paris hall in response to critics who called existentialism pessimistic, quietist, and dangerous.

Shares freedom and bad faith with Being and Nothingness.

02

The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus · Philosophy

The Myth of Sisyphus begins with what Camus calls the only truly serious philosophical question: why not commit suicide?

Both dig into freedom.

03

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl · Psychology

Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's account of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and the psychological theory he developed from that experience.

A kindred philosophy read.

04

The Courage to Be

Paul Tillich · Philosophy

The Courage to Be originated as the Terry Lectures at Yale in 1950 and was published in 1952.

Both dig into existence.

05

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Tom Wolfe · Memoir

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, published in 1968, is Tom Wolfe's account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters — the group of psychedelic adventurers who drove a painted bus across the United States in 1964, staged LSD-fueled "Acid Tests" in California, and became one of the central myths of the 1960s counterculture.

Shares freedom and consciousness with Being and Nothingness.

06

Consciousness Explained

Daniel C. Dennett · Philosophy

Consciousness Explained is Daniel Dennett's attempt to replace what he calls the Cartesian Theater — the intuitive picture of consciousness as a single unified stream of experience observed by a self — with a model he calls Multiple Drafts.

Both dig into consciousness.

07

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking

Daniel Dennett · Philosophy

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking is Daniel Dennett's handbook for thinking well — a collection of seventy-odd conceptual tools assembled across a long career in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and evolutionary theory.

Both dig into consciousness.

08

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

David Eagleman · Philosophy

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives is a collection of forty short, fictional vignettes, each imagining a different version of what happens after death.

Both dig into consciousness.

09

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

Alan Watts · Philosophy

The Book, published in 1966, is Alan Watts's most direct attempt to explain the central illusion he spent his career examining: the belief that each of us is a separate self, enclosed in skin, confronting an alien world.

Both dig into consciousness.

10

The Clock of the Long Now

Stewart Brand · Philosophy

The Clock of the Long Now is Stewart Brand's case for thinking at a civilizational scale rather than a quarterly one.

Both dig into responsibility.

11

The Courage to Be Disliked

Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga · Philosophy

The Courage to Be Disliked presents Alfred Adler's philosophy of individual psychology through a Socratic dialogue between a young man and a philosopher.

Both dig into freedom.

12

The Mind's I

Douglas Hofstadter & Daniel Dennett · Philosophy

The Mind's I is a collaborative anthology edited by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett, two of the most influential thinkers on consciousness and mind of the late twentieth century.

Both dig into consciousness.