The Great Philosophers [Hardcover]

Karl Jaspers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1962

Karl Jaspers died in 1969, leaving unfinished his universal history of philosophy, a history organized around those philosophers who have influenced the course of human thought. The first two volumes of this work appeared in Jasper's lifetime; the third and fourth have been gathered from the vast material of his posthumous papers. This is the fourth volume. Following his original plan of "promoting the happiness that comes of meeting great men and sharing in their thoughts," Jaspers discusses Descartes, a pious Catholic who vacillated between rational philosophy and obedience to authority. Lessing, whose thought was clear, open-ended, experimental, hones. Pascal. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Weber, who posed most penetratingly and urgently the "radical questionability of human Existenz." Marx was a dogmatic dreamer, and Einstein a great scientist, but limited in his insight into human existence. Jasper's method is personal, one of constant questioning and struggle, as he enters into dialogue iwth his "eternal contemporaries," the thinkers of the past. For he believes that it is only through communication with others that we come to ourselves and to wisdom.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Scrutinizing 10 philosophers from Epicurus to Hegel, Jaspers, the famed German existentialist (1883-1969), extracts the living essence of each philosopher's wisdom in these higly individualistic critiques. For Jaspers, Giordano Bruno, the Italian wandering scholar burnt at the stake by the Inquisition, is the founder of modern pantheism, while Democritus, the ancient Greek atomist, showed that "it is possible to live, without God, in tranquillity, serene and active." Jaspers also discusses the egalitarianism of philosophical poet Xenophanes; Empedocles as a self-styled prophet and savior; Aristotle's pursuit of truth through the intellect; religious mystic Jakob Boehme; and the systems of Leibniz and Schelling. Translated from the 1981 German edition of Jaspers's posthumous writings, this searching study complements the first two volumes of The Great Philosophers which were published in the 1960s.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Containing Volumes 3 and 4 of Jaspers's overview of individual philosophers through history, this translation includes his presentations of the systems, ideas, and historical significances of Xenophanes, Democritus, Empedocles, Bruno, Epicurus, Boehme, Aristotle, Schelling, Leibniz, and Hegel. Some chapters are simply edited lectures, but the individuals are given evenhanded and lucid treatment. All quotations are rendered by the translators into English, so that this book is truly available to lay readers with little or no academic training. Because of its clarity and the individuals covered, it belongs in most public and academic collections, while scholars will be interested in Jaspers's choices of characterizations of both the thinkers and their systems.
- Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., Cal. Poetry
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Harcourt (on Demand) (July 1962)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151369402
• ISBN-13: 978-0151369409
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,468,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a splendid and wonderful book, November 21, 1998

By 

Sean O'connell([e-mail]) (Palatine,Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Philosophers: Xenophanes, Democritus, Empedocles, Bruno, Epicurus, Boehme, Schelling, Leibniz, Aristotle, Hegel (The Great Philosophers, Volume III) (Hardcover)

What a magnificient analysis full of profound and original insights.This book was done with such exemplary clarity that one need not be a student of philosophy in order to comprehend the ideas that are discussed.I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in discovering the important pathway into the lives and thoughts of the great minds.