GENERAL PROBLEMS IN NIETZSCHE INTERPRETATION Every philosopher presents special problems of interpretation. With Nietzsche these problems are especially crucial. The very richness of Nietzsche's thought and expression becomes a trap for the incautious or imaginative mind. Perhaps the greatest temptation for the in terpreter of Nietzsche is to attempt to "systematize" his thought into a consistent whole. Any such attempt necessarily results in distortion, for there is a fluidity in Nietzsche's thought which does not lend itself to strict categorization. This is not to deny that there are certain organic patterns in his philosophy. These patterns emerge, however, as Jaspers correctly insists, only upon careful, critical comparison of pertinent passages drawn from the entire corpus of Nietzsche's works. No single passage can be taken as a definitive statement of Nietzsche's views of any particular subject. Frequently, by presenting two or three especially relevant quotations from the author being considered, the correctness of his interpretation. With Nietz a critic can support sche, however, such a procedure is inadequate, for in many cases other passages can be found which will support an alternative, if not oppo site, interpretation. Nor is this difficulty alleviated by vast compi lations of relevant passages, for then one could gain just as much, and quite likely more, from re-reading Nietzsche's works themselves.

Nietzsche claimed to be a philosopher of the future, but he was appropriated as a philosopher of Nazism. His work inspired a long study by Martin Heidegger and essays by a host of lesser disciples attached to the Third Reich. In 1935, however, Karl Jaspers set out to "marshall against the National Socialists the world of thought of the man they had proclaimed as their own philosopher." The year after Nietzsche was published, Jaspers was discharged from his professorship at Heidelberg University by order of the Nazi leadership. Unlike the ideologues, Jaspers does not selectively cite Nietzsche's work to reinforce already held opinions. Instead, he presents Nietzsche as a complex, wide-ranging philosopher - extraordinary not only because he foresaw all the monstrosities of the twentieth century but also because he saw through them.

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A landmark discussion between two great thinkers, vital to an understanding of twentieth-century philosophy and intellectual history.

In this second volume of a trilogy that represents a landmark contribution to philosophy, psychology, and intellectual history, Walter Kaufmann has selected three seminal figures of the modem period who have radically altered our understanding of what it is to be human. His interpretations of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Buber are lively, accessible, and penetrating, and in the best scholarly tradition they challenge and revise accepted views.After an introductory chapter on Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer, with particular attention to the former's views on despair and the latter's on insanity and repression, Kaufmann argues that Nietzsche was the first great depth psychologist and shows how he revolutionized human self-understanding. Nietzsche's psychology, including his fascinating psychology of masks, is discussed fully and expertly.Heidegger's version of existentialism is herein subjected to a devastating attack. After criticizing it, Kaufmann shows how the same mentality finds expression in Heidegger's philosophy and in his now-infamous pro-Nazi writings. Here, as in his portraits of other major thinkers, the author's concern is to show that his subjects are of one piece.

Includes summary but substantial accounts of the thought of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Jaspers, Marcel, Heidegger and Sartre, and a concluding essay that attempts to interpret the whole Existentialist movement.

Providing a novel interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophical method, Nietzsche, Truth and Transformation addresses the philosophical problem of on what basis, if knowledge is always from a perspective, one can criticise modern humanity and culture, and how such critique can be actively responded to.