Give and Take

Episode 180: Walter Kaufmann: Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic, with Stanley Corngold



September 24th, 2019  •  52 mins 25 secs  •  Download (36 MB)  •  Link with Timestamp

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My guest is Stanley Corngold. His new book is "Walter Kaufmann: Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic." Walter Kaufmann (1921–1980) was a charismatic philosopher, critic, translator, and poet who fled Nazi Germany at the age of eighteen, emigrating alone to the United States. He was astonishingly prolific until his untimely death at age fifty-nine, writing some dozen major books, all marked by breathtaking erudition and a provocative essayistic style. He single-handedly rehabilitated Nietzsche’s reputation after World War II and was enormously influential in introducing postwar American readers to existentialism. Until now, no book has examined his intellectual legacy.