Jonathan Webber

@jonathanwebber.bsky.social

444 Followers 293 Following

Half victim, half accomplice, like everyone

Wooden board on Climping beach in June 2021 bearing no fewer than five bright yellow warning signs: CAUTION keep away from rocks deep voids CAUTION vertical drop CAUTION exposed beach debris Groynes Submerged objects
On the right side: image of the cover of The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy, edited by me. On the left side, the following text: Bad Faith, Bullshit, and Belonging 22 November, 10 - 11.30am Exploring existentialist views on bullshit, from Kierkegaard's ‘chatter’ and Heidegger's ‘idle talk’ to Beauvoir's ‘popular wisdom’ and Sartre's development of these ideas to critique societal divisions. Online talk given by Jonathan Webber, editor of THE PENGUIN BOOK OF EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY Tickets: bit.ly/SAPCbfbb Southern Association for Psychotherapy and Counselling
Second (and final) contents page, listing –– 4. THE SECOND SEX Femininity: The Trap Simone de Beauvoir Myths Simone de Beauvoir Woman’s Situation and Character Simone de Beauvoir Conclusion Simone de Beauvoir 5. COLONIALISM AND RACIALIZATION The Lived Experience of the Black Man Frantz Fanon The Black Man and Psychopathology Frantz Fanon From One China to Another Jean- Paul Sartre AFTERWORD ‘No, I’m not an existentialist’, Albert Camus Tells Us Jeanine Delpech
First contents page, listing –– What Existentialism Is and Why It Matters How To Read This Book 1. INSPIRATIONS Crop Rotation Søren Kierkegaard The Present Age Søren Kierkegaard The Joyous Science Friedrich Nietzsche A Short Account of Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud Dasein and Anxiety Martin Heidegger 2. BEING AND NOTHINGNESS Anguish, Freedom, and Values Jean-Paul Sartre Conducts of Bad Faith Jean-Paul Sartre The Look Jean-Paul Sartre Existential Psychoanalysis Jean-Paul Sartre 3. THE EXISTENTIALIST OFFENSIVE The End of the War Jean-Paul Sartre Existentialism and Popular Wisdom Simone de Beauvoir Portrait of the Anti- Semite Jean-Paul Sartre Literature and Metaphysics Simone de Beauvoir
Image is book cover with the release date beneath: 13 November 2025. Artwork on the book cover is Marie Raymond's painting Arabesques ou Variations sur la volute, 1948, oil on canvas, 91 x 72.5 cm, © ADAGP, Paris, banque d’images de l’ADAGP – an abstract painting in yellows, greys, whites, and black. Book is published in Penguin Classics.
The lower two-thirds of the photo is grassland with a worn path going straight ahead through it. The upper third is a blue sky with little fluffy clouds. On the horizon in the centre (and quite small) is Stonehenge. Photo taken from a pathway that has been used to approach Stonehenge for over 4000 years.
Photo of makeshift sign that says DUCK RACE POSTPONED NEW DATE TBC pinned to a bus stop on the edge of a village green near to the Surrey town of Dorking
Suppose someone wanting to learn to dance said: 'For hundreds of years now one generation after another has been learning dance steps, it's high time I took advantage of this and began straight off with a set of quadrilles.' One would surely laugh a little at him; but in the world of spirit such an attitude is considered utterly plausible. What then is education? I had thought it was the curriculum the individual ran through in order to catch up with himself; and anyone who does not want to go through this curriculum will be little helped by being born into the most enlightened age.
Screen shot showing the post at the top of a search for Cardiff philosophy
Photo of the Colston statue lying on its back with red spray paint over its face and upper torso, as it is now exhibited in the M Shed. Exhibit includes changing images and text on the wall behind. In this photo, the wall is black except for an unattributed quote –– "It was poetic justice, seeing it go in the harbour where those ships sailed."
Brushed steel plaque attached to the railings in Bristol harbour at the place where the Colston statue was dropped into the water. Plaque has an etching of that moment, accompanied by the text: June 7th, 2020: At this spot, during worldwide anti-racism protests, a statue celebrating the 17th century slave-trader Edward Colston was thrown into the harbour by the people of Bristol. Various campaigns to have the statue removed through official channels had been frustrated. Plaque then quotes a poem that was published the next day by - Vanessa Kisuule, who was the official Bristol City Poet at the time: "You came down easy in the end. As you landed A piece of you fell off, broke away, And inside, nothing but air. This whole time, you were hollow"
Ticket to see My Bloody Valentine at Town & Country Club (as was) in Kentish Town on 15 December 1991. Price was £ 6.50.
Photo taken from Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol under a bright blue sky. Foreground is a ragged young tree in front of an old stone wall. In the distance is a large white office and showrooms building whose name actually is Here for some reason and the word HERE is written on it in giant letters.
Back of packaging for some kind of room or pillow spray my teenager won in a raffle. Along the top it says SLEEP MATTERS in gold lettering. Beneath that in white lettering it says: spray as often as needed to freshen up any space. Then it says: extremely flammable liquid and vapour. Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects. Then talks about allergic reactions in humans. There are also two chemical warning symbols, one is a flame in a red triangle and the other simply a bold exclamation mark in a red triangle. I have no idea why anyone would even make this never mind buy it.
Sign in a shop. Sign headline is: Trousers Explained. Beneath the headline is the true sentence: Legwear is a key part of your outdoor clothing system.
Photo of Birmingham city centre in the distance taken through a window of the university’s School of Education building, a window which in the camera’s eye alone reflected the ceiling light on the landing behind me to look like a flying saucer hovering over Birmingham city centre. Or did it?
Sunset over the Birmingham university campus with the iconic square and ridiculously tall clock tower in the centre.
Black and white photo of Simone de Beauvoir looking despondent at a cafe table with pen in one hand, cigarette in the other, sheets of paper beneath the pen, and a coffee pot, cup, and jug (I guess milk or cream) on the table. Looks like it was taken in the 1940s.
A rather special xmas light display suspended above the high street in Dorking (in Surrey in England) featuring what appear to be one-legged turkeys dancing the cancan and leading santa’s sleigh towards a street light — the lamp itself is out of shot, so there’s just an ominous glow. The front three turkeys are wearing santa hats that seem swept back by their forward movement. The fourth is not. Santa is wearing one but his is inexplicably swept forward. Perhaps it has been blown from the fourth turkey’s head and just landed jauntily on santa. There’s really no way to know.
Kermit looking nervous
Cover of the academic journal Sartre Studies International
Muted text setting with both Elon and Musk added as separate entries. (Not on screen: have also added Twitter and 20 books that stayed.)
Cover of Ella Fitzgerald’s 1960 album Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas
Front end of large boiler with pressure gauge and lamps. Parts of a big old steam engine driven by this boiler are fixed to the wall in the background.
Cover of Kate Bush album The Sensual World
Front cover of Mind quarterly review of philosophy and psychology from July 1954, the footer of which (highlighted in this post) reads: "Entered as Second Class Matter, October Ist, I948, at the Post Office at New York , N .Y"
Version of The Gleaners in which one gleaner is missing from the painting and sitting on the frame smoking a cigarette.
Excerpt from Beauvoir's book The Ethics of Ambiguity: "The case is the same in what concerns time and its moments, and just as we believe that by denying each individual one by one, one eliminates the collectivity, we think that if man gives himself up to an indefinite pursuit of the future he will lose his existence without ever recovering it; he then resembles a madman who runs after his shadow. The means, it is said, will be justified by the end; but it is the means which define it, and if it is contradicted at the moment that it is set up, the whole enterprise sinks into absurdity."
Photo of entrance to Kenwood House estate. Sign on gateway reads: STOP Rising Bollards
Evening Standard headline poster in frame. Headline is: Author dies after facelift
Face of an old grandfather clock (in a cottage in west Wales, since you ask) whose hands, screws, and some other dial thing together vaguely resemble a face expressing a blend of surprise and dismay.
Close-up photo of Carreg Coetan Arthur, clearly showing that the capstone is held just above the fourth upright stone.
Photo of Carreg Coetan Arthur, a small Neolithic burial dolmen in west Wales comprising one 17-ton capstone standing on three upright stones (with fourth upright not quite touching it).
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog taking photo with iphone
Original cover of Tim Crane's book The Mechanical Mind (Penguin, 1995). Cover image is a photo of the same sculpture as in the post to which this is a reply. Not the same photo, though.
View east including Arthur's Seat and the Firth of Forth
Photo of small mountains and blue skies through train window, with handout for my British Society for Ethical Theory talk on table in foreground.
Cartoony image of the entente cordiale stolen from wikipedia. Two women dancing emphatically. One wearing dress made of uk flag and a metal helmet. The other wearing dress made of france flag and a metal helmet. Guess the helmets are the cordiality? Or the dancing?
Current state of French election results. Left alliance on 176 seats. Macron’s coalition on 154. Fascist scum on 140. Only 25 yet to declare.
Photo of Anna Cornelia Ploug (Copenhagen) on concrete contradictions in The Second Sex.
Block print by Bristol-based artist Corinne Welch reading CHANGE in red letters over 2024 in turquoise letters.
Juliana de Albuquerque speaking in front of a screen that presents the banner heading of the Society for European Philosophy and the logo and coat of arms of Cardiff University.
Trolley problem diagram with dilemma itself blurred. Caption reads: Oh no! A trolley is heading towards 5 people. You can pull the lever to divert it to the other track, killing 1 person instead. At least, that’s what you think is happening. You forgot your glasses and can’t see that well. What do you do?
Photograph of Rishi Sunak drenched in rainwater outside No 10 Downing Street announcing a general election and the imminent destruction of the Tory party.
Penny Mordaunt wielding an actual sword. (At a coronation, no less.)
Cover of January 2024 issue of French Studies with contents listed.
Bullshit!
Text of an email that reads –– "Dear Dr. Webber, Due to your involvement in the field and the research you published in your paper, "Existential Flourishing: A Phenomenology of the Virtues," IntechOpen invites you to contribute a chapter to "Bread Science and Technology - Innovative Approaches and Future Challenges," an Open Access book edited by Dr. Muhammad Sajid Arshad and Dr. Haroon Munir. This book is part of the "Food Science and Nutrition" Book Series. Work with an internationally recognized peer group and gain increased visibility for your published work. Please visit the book project page to start the submission process at:"
Two carved pumpkin faces lit from the inside against a dark background.
Enormous wall panel sculpture made of old plastic coated wires in shades of red. One of the most recent items in the artist’s extensive Tightrope series.
Captain: What a semester, huh? Tintin: Captain, it's week 1 Snowy: drinks beer
Photo of two books side by side: Man’s Search For Meaning, by Viktor Frankl; Undercover Robot, by David Edmonds and Bertie Fraser.