The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog
Via openculture.com, check out these lectures by Walter Kaufmann, who did most of the good Nietzsche translations you’d pick up nowadays and was the teacher of Frithjof Bergmann whose name I drop a lot on the show (who was in turn teacher of Robert Solomon).
-Mark Linsenmayer
[…] Nietzsche (e.g. the one I learned from Frithjof, who got it from famed Nietzsche scholar/translator Walter Kaufmann). This is similar to Pirsig’s mistake in dismissing Hegel; like Russell and James, Pirsig got […]
Uh, Mark
You did not fully mine your linked repository for famous philosophers.
See Martin on Atheists http://www.openculture.com/2011/03/steve_martin_writes_first_song_for_atheists.html
Nice one, Mark. I know Kaufmann is famous for all the Nietzsche scholarship, but I actually discovered him by stumbling across two of his essay collections at a used bookstore:
“Critique of Religion and Philosophy”:
http://amzn.com/0691020019
and
“From Shakespeare to Existentialism”:
http://amzn.com/0691013675
He’s a great prose stylist. Either of these two collections make for a great read.
P.S. Not sure if “Critique” is properly an essay collection. I suppose it was intended as a coherent narrative, but any of the chapters can be read independently, and break apart like a good candy bar.
Thanks for the photo – I’d never seen a pic of him before. Kaufmann is the guy nearly solely responsible for rehabilitating the image of Nietzsche in the Anglo world after N’s appropriation by the Nazis. His translations and introductions to N were important to me and K is a great writer too.
these were really great, thanks for sharing
There is an old Zen saying that goes something like this…
Before enlightenment, mountains look like mountains and rivers look like rivers.
When seeking enlightenment, mountains no longer look like mountains and rivers no longer look like rivers.
On achieving enlightenment, mountains again look like mountains and rivers look like rivers.
These are my thoughts on Nietzsche.
You see, when I first read Friedrich Nietzsche, I thought “holy shit, this guy wants to liquidate my grandmother”!
Then I read Walter Kaufmann’s rehabilitated Nietzsche, and I no longer thought that Friedrich Nietzsche wanted to liquidate my grandmother.
But today, after reaching satori for myself, I again think, “holy shit, this guy wants to liquidate my grandmother”
I hope this helps