Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #589583 in Books
• Published on: 1995-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The "great awakeners," according to German existentialist philospher Karl Jaspers (1883-1969), are those thinkers who anticipated the crises of their age, exposing conventions as defunct in order to recall us to ourselves. The awakeners he probes in these challenging, highly personal essays-Blaise Pascal, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gotthold Lessing-all grew from the soil of Christianity (Nietzsche's negation of Christianity betrays his ties to Christian standards, Jaspers argues). In this fourth and final volume of his ambitious survey of philosophy, Jaspers attacks the scientific dogmatism of Descartes and the political dogmatism of Marx. He views Einstein as a revolutionary scientist but severely limited in his insights into social and political complexities. German sociologist Max Weber (who died in 1920), prescient analyst of bureaucracy and mass movements, emerges here as an exemplar of his age but, paradoxically, an ineffectual figure who hardly touched his time.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
When Jaspers died in 1969, he left the materials for the third and fourth volumes of his history of human thought. This fourth and final volume (following publication of the third, LJ 9/15/93) brings the history up to the mid-20th century. For each writer he discusses, Jaspers provides a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, and a critical assessment. Since the text is compiled from notes left by Jaspers, the depth of analysis is varied, but the editors have done a commendable job in trying to provide the reader with a feel for what Jaspers proposed to accomplish. It is unfortunate that Jaspers was unable to finish this work before his death; had he done so, it would have earned a well-deserved place among other histories of thought, e.g., Frederick Copleston and Emile Brehier. This work's importance today is founded as much on the eminence of its author as it is on its contents. Recommended for academic libraries supporting broad programs in philosophy and the history of ideas.
Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Following volume 3, this tome finishes Jaspers' global survey of philosophers; it conveys an unfinished quality due to its being posthumously assembled from his papers. Some of these taciturn jottings resemble lecture notes, but even they display Jaspers' strength as a philosophy teacher, which he was for 60 years in Germany and Switzerland. Here, he only sketchily presents the thought of Weber, Einstein, and Marx, but robustly engages Descartes, Pascal, Lessing, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard--the latter with "some trepidation"--for Jaspers wonders whether the big K can be taught at all, an existential problem bound to beset a teacher with self-doubt. Yet he bravely forges ahead on Kierkegaard, the longest section of this work, with a biographical profile, summary of works, and analysis of his thought, a format Jaspers applies to each philosopher. He denominates this group collectively as "The Great Awakeners" : they separated man from Christian revelation and salvation and compelled him to face the abyss of his isolation. For these original if chilling thinkers, as for the greats in his prior books, Jaspers was the premier expositor of the century to college students. Larger libraries should see some steady, though not heavy, use of this title over the years. Gilbert Taylor

Customer Reviews

a splendid and wonderful book
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.