Posts tagged kaufmann

It is in the work of Jaspers that the seeds sown by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche first grew into existentialism or, as he prefers to say, Existenzphilosophie. One reason for his opposition to the label “existentialism” is that it suggests a school of thought, a doctrine among others, a particular position.
— Existentialism; Kaufmann, p. 22
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Jasper’s Philosophy

As a philosopher who came upon the role along a circuitous path, Jaspers’ legacy is a merging of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Much like these two predecessors, Jaspers disliked formal philosophy, especially as taught at universities. However, when merging the basics of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche into a foundation for existentialism, Jaspers did take liberties a “serious” philosopher would not have. According to Walter Kaufmann:

To Jaspers the differences between Kierkegaard and Nietzsche seem much less important than that which they have in common. What mattered most to them, does not matter to Jaspers: he dismisses Kierkegaard’s “forced Christianity” no less than Nietzsche’s “forced anti-Christianity” as relatively unimportant; he discounts Nietzsche’s ideas as absurdities, and he does not heed Kierkegaard’s central opposition to philosophy. All the many philosophers since Hegel and Schelling, however, fare far worse: they are at best instructive but lack human substance: “The original philosophers of the age are Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.” The crucial fact for Jaspers is that their thinking was not academically inspired but rooted in their Existenz.

Maybe it was his willingness to discard the prominent themes of both men that allowed Jaspers to create something unique and exciting.Kierkeaard’s Christianity was central to his writings, yet Jaspers had no difficulty dismissing Kierkegaard’s faith. Nietzsche’s “anti-Christian” tone was dismissed with equal ease by Jaspers.

Existentialism; Kaufmann, p. 23

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Levelling at its maximum is like the stillness of death, where one can hear one’s own heartbeat, a stillness like death, into which nothing can penetrate, in which everything sinks, powerless. One person can head a rebellion, but one person cannot head this levelling process, for that would make him a leader and he would avoid being levelled. Each individual can in his little circle participate in this levelling, but it is an abstract process, and levelling is abstraction conquering individuality.
— Søren Kierkegaard, The Present Age, translated by Alexander Dru with Foreword by Walter Kaufmann, p. 51-53’ (via kachlovestoeat)
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Man stands alone in the universe, responsible for his condition, likely to remain in a lowly state, but free to reach above the stars.
— Walter Kaufmann (Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre)
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What is Existentialism? it is perhaps the most misunderstood of modern philosophic positions —- misunderstood by reason of its broad popularity and general unfamiliarity with its origins, representatives, and principles.Existential thinking does not originate with Jean Paul Sartre. It has prior religious, literary, and philosophic origins. In its narrowest formulation it is a metaphysical doctrine, arguing as it does that any definition of man’s essence must follow, not precede, an estimation of his existence. In Heidegger, it affords a view of being in its totality; in Kierkegaard an approach to that inwardness indispensable to authentic religious experience; for Dostoevsky, Kafka, and Rilke the existential situation bears the stamp of modern man’s alienation, up-rootedness, and absurdity; to Sartre it has vast ethical and political implications. 

What is Existentialism?
it is perhaps the most misunderstood of modern philosophic positions —- misunderstood by reason of its broad popularity and general unfamiliarity with its origins, representatives, and principles.
Existential thinking does not originate with Jean Paul Sartre. It has prior religious, literary, and philosophic origins. In its narrowest formulation it is a metaphysical doctrine, arguing as it does that any definition of man’s essence must follow, not precede, an estimation of his existence. In Heidegger, it affords a view of being in its totality; in Kierkegaard an approach to that inwardness indispensable to authentic religious experience; for Dostoevsky, Kafka, and Rilke the existential situation bears the stamp of modern man’s alienation, up-rootedness, and absurdity; to Sartre it has vast ethical and political implications. 

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