This is the shelf that did the most damage to my worldview: the thinkers who talked me out of thinking there is any order to our existence. I keep the texts that pushed me toward nihilism and existentialism here, in full, for anyone who wants to follow the same path.
Reading List
If Hegel is new to you, I wrote a plain-language introduction to Hegel’s Science of Logic to go with the text above — what the book actually argues, and where to start.
The Marx text above is The Poverty of Philosophy, his 1847 attack on Proudhon — I put together a guide to the feud behind it and what the book argues if you want the context before diving in.
My copy of Sartre did not survive the archive intact, so until I rescan it, I am pointing readers to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on Sartre, which is thorough enough to hold you over. The entry on Nietzsche is worth the same visit — or for the primary text itself, I put together a guide to Beyond Good and Evil, including the broken friendship with Wagner behind it.
For a shorter, more personal take on where these ideas land in everyday life, read 2 Da Point, or go back to fiction with the stories collection.