Lately I’ve been focused on a writing project, which has meant that my reading has over the past couple of weeks largely entailed diving back into works I’ve previously read in order to cite. However, I did read two new (to me) books during this time: Donald D. Palmer’s “Sartre for Beginners” and Jens Zimmermann’s “Hermeneutics: A Very Short Introduction”, both of which were concise, accessible, and engaging.
Zimmermann’s Hermeneutics is anchored around modern philosophical hermeneutics, originating in the efforts of Schleiermacher and Dilthey, and finding full expression in the 20th century with Heidegger and Gadamer. Sartre for beginners focuses on Sartre’s existential analysis in Being and Nothingness, which both tracks and differs with the existential analysis of Heidegger’s Being and Time.
For anyone interested in either of these topics, I recommend both of these fantastic introductions.