Decidophobia

Walter Arnold Kaufmann (July 1, 1921 – September 4, 1980) was a German-American philosopher, translator, and poet. A prolific author, he wrote extensively on a broad range of subjects, such as authenticity and death, moral philosophy and existentialism, theism and atheism, Christianity and Judaism, as well as philosophy and literature. He served more than 30 years as a professor at Princeton University.

He is renowned as a scholar and translator of Friedrich Nietzsche. He also wrote a 1965 book on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and published a translation of Goethe's ''Faust'', and Martin Buber's '' I and Thou''.

Biography

Walter Kaufmann was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, on 1 July 1921. Corngold, Stanley �
Introduction"
in

by STANLEY CORNGOLD, Princeton University Press, 2019, pp. 1–10.

Kaufmann was raised a Lutheran. At age 11, finding that he believed neither in the Trinity nor in the divinity of Jesus, he converted to Judaism. Kaufmann subsequently discovered that his grandparents were all Jewish. Being both descended from Jews and a convert to Judaism placed Kaufmann in real danger in the rabidly antisemitic Nazi Germany. In 1939 Kaufmann emigrated to the United States and began studying at Williams College. Stanley Corngold records that there he "abandoned his commitment to Jewish ritual while developing a deeply critical attitude toward all established religions."

Kaufmann graduated from Williams College in 1941, then went to Harvard University, receiving an MA degree in Philosophy in 1942. His studies were, however, interrupted by the war. He enlisted with the US Army Air Force, was placed at Camp Ritchie and is one of many Ritchie Boys who would go on to serve as interrogators for the Military Intelligence Service in Europe. Kaufmann specifically performed interrogations in Germany.

Kaufmann became a citizen of the United States in 1944.

In 1947 he was awarded his PhD by Harvard. His dissertation, written in under a year, was titled "Nietzsche's Theory of Values." That same year he joined the Philosophy Department at Princeton University. And, although he would hold visiting appointments in both the US and abroad, he would remain based at Princeton for the rest of his academic career. His students over the years included Nietzsche scholars Frithjof Bergmann, Richard Schacht, Ivan Soll and Alexander Nehamas.

Kaufmann died, aged 59, on 4 September 1980.

Philosophical work

In a 1959 article in ''Harper's Magazine'', he summarily rejected all religious values and practice, especially the liberal Protestantism of continental Europe that began with Schleiermacher and culminated in the writings of Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann. In their place, he praised moralists such as the biblical prophets, the Buddha, and Socrates. He argued that critical analysis and the acquisition of knowledge were liberating and empowering forces. He forcefully criticized the fashionable liberal Protestantism of the 20th century as filled with contradictions and evasions, preferring the austerity of the book of Job and the Jewish existentialism of Martin Buber. Kaufmann discussed many of these issues in his 1958 ''Critique of Religion and Philosophy''.

Kaufmann wrote a good deal on the existentialism of Søren Kierkegaard and Karl Jaspers. Kaufmann had great admiration for Kierkegaard's passion and his insights on freedom, anxiety, and individualism.Kaufmann, W (1980).''Discovering the Mind: Goethe, Kant, and Hegel.'' New York: McGraw-Hill Co., p.26 Kaufmann wrote: "Nobody before Kierkegaard had seen so clearly that the freedom to make a fateful decision that may change our character and future breeds anxiety." Although Kaufmann did not share Kierkegaard's religious outlook and was critical of his Protestant theology, Kaufmann was nevertheless sympathetic and impressed with the depth of Kierkegaard's thinking:

Kaufmann edited the anthology ''Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre''. Kaufmann disliked Martin Heidegger's thinking, along with his unclear writing.

Kaufmann is renowned for his translations and exegesis of Nietzsche, whom he saw as gravely misunderstood by English speakers, as a major early existentialist, and as an unwitting precursor, in some respects, to Anglo-American analytic philosophy. Michael Tanner called Kaufmann's commentaries on Nietzsche "obtrusive, self-referential, and lacking insight", but Llewellyn Jones wrote that Kaufmann's "fresh insights into ... Nietzsche ... can deepen the insights of every discriminating student of literature," and '' The New Yorker'' wrote that Kaufmann "has produced what may be the definitive study of Nietzsche's ... thought—an informed, scholarly, and lustrous work."

In his '' Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist'' (1950) Kaufmann wrote that

Kaufmann also sympathized with Nietzsche's acerbic criticisms of Christianity. However, Kaufmann faulted much in Nietzsche, writing that "my disagreements with ietzscheare legion." Regarding style, Kaufmann argued that Nietzsche's ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', for example, is in parts badly written, melodramatic, or verbose, yet concluded that the book "is not only a mine of ideas, but also a major work of literature and a personal triumph."

Kaufmann described his own ethic and his own philosophy of living in his books, including ''The Faith of a Heretic'' (1961) and ''Without Guilt and Justice: From Decidophobia to Autonomy'' (1973). In the former work he advocated living in accordance with what he proposed as the four cardinal virtues: "humbition" (a fusion of humility and ambition), love, courage, and honesty.

Partial bibliography

Original works

* (1950) '' Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist''
* (1958) '' Critique of Religion and Philosophy''
* (1959) '' From Shakespeare to Existentialism''
* (1961) '' The Faith of a Heretic''
* (1962) '' Cain and Other Poems''
* (1965) '' Hegel: A Reinterpretation''
* (1968) '' Tragedy and Philosophy''
* (1973) ''Without Guilt and Justice: From Decidophobia to Autonomy''
* (1976) ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death: Thirteen Essays''
* (1976) '' Religions in Four Dimensions''
* (1977) ''The Future of the Humanities''
* (1978) ''Man's Lot: A Trilogy'', consisting of
** ''Life at the Limits''
** ''Time is an Artist''
** ''What is Man?''
*
** vol. 1 ''Goethe, Kant, and Hegel''
** vol. 2 ''Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Buber''
** vol. 3 ''Freud Versus Adler and Jung''

Translations

* (1958) ''Judaism and Christianity, essays by Leo Baeck''
* (1963) '' Goethe's Faust'' (Part One and selections from Part Two)
* (1965) ''Hegel: Texts and Commentary''
* (1970) '' I and Thou'', by Martin Buber
* (1975) '' Twenty-Five German poets'' an extended version of '' Twenty German Poets'' (1962)
As written or published by Friedrich Nietzsche in chronological order:
* '' The Birth of Tragedy Or: Hellenism And Pessimism''
* '' The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs''
* ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None''
* '' Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future''
* ''On the Genealogy of Morals'' (with R. J. Hollingdale)
* ''The Case of Wagner'' ''A Musician's Problem''
* '' Twilight of the Idols'' ''How One Philosophizes with a Hammer''
* '' The Antichrist''
* ''Nietzsche contra Wagner''
* '' Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is''
* ''The Will to Power'' (with R. J. Hollingdale)

Anthologies/edited works

* (1954) '' The Portable Nietzsche''. Viking.
* (1968) '' Basic Writings of Nietzsche'', designed to complement the preceding.
* (1961) '' Religion from Tolstoy to Camus'', a companion to the preceding.
* (1961) ''Philosophic Classics'', in two volumes:
** ''v. I:'' '' Thales to Ockham,'' ''v. II'': ''Bacon to Kant''
* (1968) '' Basic Writings of Nietzsche'', designed to complement the preceding.
* (1970) '' Hegel's Political Philosophy''
* (1975) '' Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre''

Articles, book chapters, and introductions

* 'Nietzsche's Admiration for Socrates", '' Journal of the History of Ideas'', v. 9, October 1948, pp. 472–491. Earlier version: "Nietzsche's Admiration for Socrates" (Bowdoin Prize, 1947; pseud. David Dennis)
* "Goethe and the History of Ideas", ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', v. 10, October 1949, pp. 503–516.
* "The Hegel Myth and Its Method", ''Philosophical Review'' v.60, No. 4 (October 1951), pp. 459–486.
* Review of ''Nietzsche and Christian Ethics'' by R. Motson Thompson, ''Philosophical Review'' v. 61, no. 4 (October 1952), pp. 595–599.
* "Hegel's Early Antitheological Phase", ''Philosophical Review'' v. 63, no. 1 (January 1954), pp. 3–18.
* "Nietzsche and Rilke", '' Kenyon Review'', XVII (1955), pp. 1–23.
* "Toynbee and Superhistory", '' Partisan Review'', vol. 22, no. 4, Fall 1955, pp. 531–541. Reprinted in
* "A Hundred Years after Kierkegaard", ''Kenyon Review'', XVIII, pp. 182–211.
* "Jaspers' Relation to Nietzsche", in Paul Schilpps, ed., ''The Philosophy of Karl Jaspers'' (New York: Tudor, 1957), pp. 407–436.
*
The Faith of a Heretic
, ''Harper's Magazine'', February 1959, pp. 33–39. Reprinted in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976).
* "Existentialism and Death", ''Chicago Review'', XIII, 1959, pp. 73–93, also in Herman Feifel (ed.) ''The Meaning of Death'', New York: The Blakiston Division / McGraw-Hill, 1959, Revised version printed in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976).
* Preface to ''Europe and the Jews: The Pressure of Christendom on the People of Israel for 1900 Years'', 2d ed, by Malcolm Hay. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961.
* "A Philosopher's View", in ''Ethics and Business: Three Lectures''. University Park, Pa., 1962, pp. 35–54. Originally presented at a seminar sponsored by the College of Business Administration of the Pennsylvania State University on March 19, 1962.
* "Nietzsche Between Homer and Sartre: Five Treatments of the Orestes Story", ''Revue Internationale de Philosophie'' v. 18, 1964, pp. 50–73.
* "Nietzsche in the Light of his Suppressed Manuscripts", '' Journal of the History of Philosophy'' v. 2, October 1964, pp. 205–226.

* "Buber's Religious Significance", from ''The Philosophy of Martin Buber'', ed. P. A. Schilpp and Maurice Friedman (London: Cambridge University Press, 1967) Reprinted in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976).
* "The Reception of Existentialism in the United States", ''Midway'', vol. 9 (1) (Summer 1968), pp. 97–126. Reprinted in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976).
* Foreword to ''Frau Lou: Nietzsche's Wayward Disciple'', by Rudolph Binion. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1969.
* Introductory essay, ''Alienation'' Richard Schacht, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1970
* "The Future of Jewish Identity", ''The Jerusalem Post Magazine'' August 1, 1969, pp. 607. Reprinted in ''Congressional Bi-Weekly'', April 3, 1970; in ''Conservative Judaism'', Summer 1970; in ''New Theology'' no. 9, 1972, pp. 41–58, and in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976.)
* Foreword to ''An Introduction to Hegel's Metaphysics'', by Ivan Soll. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1969.
* "The Origin of Justice", ''Review of Metaphysics'' v. 23, December 1969, pp. 209–239.
* "Beyond Black and White", ''Midway'', v. 10(3) (Winter 1970), pp. 49–79. Also ''Survey'' no. 73 (Autumn 1969), pp. 22–46. Reprinted in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976).
* "Hegel's Ideas about Tragedy" in ''New Studies in Hegel's Philosophy'', ed. Warren E. Steinkraus (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1971), pp. 201–220.
* "The Death of God and the Revaluation", in Robert Solomon, ed., Nietzsche: A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Anchor Press, 1973), pp. 9–28.
* "The Discovery of the Will to Power", in Robert Solomon, ed., ''Nietzsche: A Collection of Critical Essays'' (New York: Anchor Press, 1973), pp. 226–242.
* Foreword in ''Truth and Value in Nietzsche: A Study of His Metaethics and Epistemology'' by John T. Wilcox. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1974
* "Nietzsche and Existentialism", ''Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Foreign Literatures'', v. 28(1) (Spring 1974), pp. 7–16. Reprinted in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976).
* "Hegel's Conception of Phenomenology" in ''Phenomenology and Philosophical Understanding'', Edo Pivcevič, ed., pp. 211–230 (1975).
* "Unknown Feuerbach Autobiography", '' Times Literary Supplement'' 1976 (3887): 1123–1124.
* "A Preface to Kierkegaard", in Søren Kierkegaard, ''The Present Age and Of the Difference Between a Genius and an Apostle'', trans. Alexander Dru, Harper Torchbooks, pp. 9–29. Reprinted in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976).
* "On Death and Lying", Reprinted in ''Existentialism, Religion, and Death'' (New York: New American Library, 1976).
* "Letter on Nietzsche", ''Times Literary Supplement'' 1978 (3960): 203.
* "Buber's Failures and Triumph", ''Revue Internationale de Philosophie'' v. 32, 1978, pp. 441–459.
* "Buber: Of His Failures and Triumph", '' Encounter'' 52(5): 31–38 1979.
* Reply to letter, ''Encounter'' 55(4): 95 1980.
* "Art, Tradition, and Truth", ''Partisan Review'', XVII, pp. 9–28.

Sound recordings

"Prof. Kaufmann discusses Sartre, Jaspers, Heidegger, Kierkegaard"

* "Kierkegaard and the Crisis in Religion
Part 1 of 3 Lectures
* "Nietzsche and the Crisis in Philosophy
Part 2 of 3 Lectures
* "Sartre and the Crisis in Morality
Part 3 of 3 Lectures
* "Oedipus Rex"
* "Homer and the Birth of Tragedy"
* "Aeschylus and the Death of Tragedy"
* "The Power of the Single Will"
* "Three Satanic Interludes, Or, 'How To Go To Hell'"
* "The Will to Power Reexamined"

See also

* American philosophy
* List of American philosophers

Notes and references

Further reading

Biographies

*

Critical assessments

* Pickus, David. "The Walter Kaufmann Myth: A Study in Academic Judgment", ''Nietzsche-Studien'' 32 (2003), 226–58.
* Ratner-Rosenhagen, Jennifer. "'Dionysian Enlightenment': Walter Kaufmann's ''Nietzsche'' in Historical Perspective", ''Modern Intellectual History'' 3 (2006), 239–269.
* Sokel, Walter. "Political Uses and Abuses of Nietzsche in Walter Kaufmann's Image of Nietzsche", ''Nietzsche-Studien'' 12 (1983), 436–42.

External links

Walter Kaufmann Web Project
with useful links to his work and life.
Selected works of Walter Kaufmann.
*,
*
Grateful student adds a memorial for Kaufmann to Chapel wall
' Princeton Alumni Weekly, 2013

Works by and about Walter Kaufmann.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaufmann, Walter
1921 births
1980 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American philosophers
20th-century essayists
20th-century German male writers
20th-century German non-fiction writers
20th-century German philosophers
20th-century German translators
Jewish American atheists
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II
American translators
Anthologists
Atheist philosophers
Continental philosophers
Critical theorists
Critics of Christianity
Critics of religions
Cultural critics
Epistemologists
Existentialists
Former Lutherans
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
German male essayists
German male non-fiction writers
German male writers
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Hegel scholars
Historians of philosophy
Jewish American academics
Jewish existentialists
Jewish philosophers
Metaphilosophers
Metaphysicians
Metaphysics writers
Moral philosophers
Nietzsche scholars
Ontologists
Writers from Freiburg im Breisgau
Phenomenologists
Philosophers of art
Philosophers of culture
Philosophers of economics
Philosophers of education
Philosophers of ethics and morality
Philosophers of history
Philosophers of Judaism
Philosophers of literature
Philosophers of love
Philosophers of mind
Philosophers of psychology
Philosophers of religion
Philosophy academics
Philosophy writers
Political philosophers
Princeton University faculty
American social commentators
German social commentators
Social critics
Social philosophers
Theorists on Western civilization
Translators of Friedrich Nietzsche
Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Williams College alumni
Writers about activism and social change
Writers about religion and science
Converts to Judaism from Lutheranism
Ritchie Boys