Home Lex Fridman Episode
Lex Fridman · 2021-09-30

Sean Kelly: Existentialism, Nihilism, and the Search for Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #227

Sean Kelly: Existentialism, Nihilism, and the Search for Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #227

Recommended on this episode

BookRecommended

The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoevsky

“my favorite novel of his”
“my favorite novel of his is uh the idiot first of all i see myself as the idiot and an idiot and i love the optimism”— Lex Fridman
BookRecommended

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky

“certainly one of the greatest novels of the 19th century uh maybe the best”
“let me talk about the brothers karamazov yes partly because that's the last novel that dostoevsky wrote i think it's certainly one of the greatest novels of the 19th century”— Sean Kelly
BookRecommendedISBN verified

The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus

“super accessible really fascinating he's a great writer really engaging”
“the myth of sisyphus which is a sort of essay it's published as a book super accessible really fascinating he's a great writer really engaging”— Sean Kelly
BookRecommendedISBN verified

Moby Dick

Herman Melville

“the other great novel of the 19th century”
“moby dick i think is the other great novel of the 19th century so the brothers karamazov and moby dick and and they're diametrically opposed”— Sean Kelly

The guest's own work

BookBy the guestISBN verified

All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age

Sean Kelly and Hubert Dreyfus

“you wrote with him the book titled all things shining reading the western classics to find meaning in a secular age”— Lex Fridman

Also referenced (named, not recommended)

BookReferencedISBN verified

Being and Nothingness

Jean-Paul Sartre

“he gives this in in his big book being in nothingness and he says um so waiters play played still do”— Sean Kelly
BookReferenced

Notes from Underground

Fyodor Dostoevsky

“notes from underground as well but what ideas of this yes do you think are existentialists”— Lex Fridman
BookReferenced

Republic

Plato

“this view is against most of philosophy from plato forward plato plato says in the republic it's a kind of myth”— Sean Kelly
BookReferencedISBN verified

The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri

“we are in 1300 dante is writing the divine comedy or something and what did it what did it mean then to live in a sacred age”— Sean Kelly
BookReferenced

Kierkegaard and the Funny

Eric Kaplan (inferred)

“his dissertation was about he called it kierkegaard and the funny which is a kind of a funny title”— Sean Kelly
MediaReferenced

The Big Lebowski

Coen Brothers (inferred)

“modern work of art called big lebowski i don't know if you've ever seen that film but there's uh a group of nihilists in that that film”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified

Siddhartha

Hermann Hesse

“with siddhartha there's more almost like a buddhist yeah sort of like watch the river and like become the river”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified

Steppenwolf

Hermann Hesse

“i'm starting to forget steppenwolf i think is uh humor it's part of the absurdity which i think modern day internet explores very well”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified

The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand

“i read the fountainhead in high school and atlas shrugged but that's at this point a very long time ago”— Sean Kelly
BookReferencedISBN verified

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

“i read the fountainhead in high school and atlas shrugged but that's at this point a very long time ago”— Sean Kelly
BookReferencedISBN verified

The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway

“old man in the sea by hemingway that also has similar i guess themes but more more personal more focused on the i”— Lex Fridman
BookReferenced

The Stranger

Albert Camus

“it has a sense like the stranger by camus it has a sense of like this is how life is”— Lex Fridman
BookReferencedISBN verified

The Pale King

David Foster Wallace

“trying to write the pale king which is the end of which is the unfinished novel that really sort of drove him to distraction”— Sean Kelly