Existentialism is Alive and Important! Review of: The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Existentialism. Edited by Kevin Aho, Megan Altman, and Hans Pedersen. London and New York: Routledge, 2024. 489 pp.

Abstract

Existentialism is considered as the “past” philosophical trend and lifestyle, the popularity and flowering of which falls on the 40s‒70s of the XX century. Also, no one reads the works of existentialists and they fall like dust on library shelves. The peer-reviewed newest handbook on contemporary existentialism challenges these two statements and opens up new ways of existential thinking in the XXI century. Its sections impress with the novelty of the subjects of existential reflection: from methodologies and technologies to the phenomenon of aging and disability. The Russian-Ukrainian war also updates existential thinking. Life and death, fidelity and betrayal, freedom and slavery etc. ‒ all these existential concepts help to understand the contemporary condition of Ukrainian people.