Episode 1: Jonathan Webber – projects and choices

Generous Questions

It's the first episode! And that means all the work that's been building for over year gets unleashed RIGHT HERE and it's pretty exciting and terrifying at the same time. So where better to start than with a conversation with a lovely friendly philosopher, discussing his fascination with soul-searching French philosophy?

Jonathan Webber is a professor of philosophy at the University of Cardiff. He came to Queen's University Belfast in April 2018 to do a viva voce examination of one of our PhD students. He was just about to publish his new book about existentialism and it seemed like the perfect time to grab him for a chat.

In fact, the conversation went so well that I'm putting it out in two parts. This is part one, where we talk about how he thinks we should think about what existentialism is. I'm calling it 'Projects and Choices'. Part two covers morality and freedom, and will be released as Generous Questions episode 2.

Here are some things that you might find useful:

• Jonathan Webber's website.
• He's on twitter @jonathanwebber.
• His home department at the University of Cardiff.
• The publisher page for his book, Rethinking Existentialism.
• The project page for the book, which includes a YouTube playlist of videos about it.
• The book / project also has a twitter account, so if you want to keep up to speed with things afoot in the study of existentialism, you can follow it @rethinkexistent.
• A blog article Jon wrote for OUP about the book.
• The website of the UK Sartre Society.

I'd really like you to get in touch if you've any feedback about this episode, particularly if it's supportive and encouraging. Just head over to the contact page.

A transcript of this conversation is available, you just need to click on the button that says 'transcript'.