Forgotten Thinkers: Walter Kaufmann

Visit my new website: www.wescecil.com The Life and Work of Walter Kaufmann are explored in this lecture by Wesley Cecil PhD. Delivered at Peninsula College.
Walter Kaufmann was a translator, scholar and philosopher who made major contributions to our understanding of Nietzsche, Hegel, Kant and Goethe. He also promoted a deeply humane and passionate sense of the human condition.
Download the lecture handout at www.wescecil.com/walter-kaufmann
For more information visit www.wescecil.com

[@tranquil2706]

Kaufman was a treasure I discovered in the college library and read a number of his books over many years. I have been neglecting him in the long course of later life but now, in my retirement, you have inspired me to go back and start again. Thank you.

[@cheri238]

I am so sleepy, I have to take a break now. I began with you last with the TV on and off, and I fell asleep twice. That was a strange lecture. I woke up early around 5:00 a.m, and began again starting with Menicus again, Stein, (He was out there), and now Walter Kauffman, I really enjoyed his works. I will now have to get his books, for I had never heard of this philosopher. As you know, I love Nietzsche. Thank you again, Dr. Wes Cecil.

[@guthrien]

What a great lecture, thank you for sharing. Kaufmann is so important to my thinking life, and it was the discovery of his non-Nietzsche specific work that really thrilled me. I'll never forget reading Faith Of A Heretic for the first time. His work is a beautiful outgrowth of profound, clear, authentic thoughts. He's so intensely interested in explaining these ideas to people that though he believes we should live to the utmost standard, it's delivered with incredible compassion. It must have been amazing to have him for a teacher. There's something there for everyone, but as an intro to a cosmopolitan, American existentialism, it's an explosive starting point. His work should be more widely known.

[@deepakbabu1987]

*Walter Kaufman was a Jew who fled to India to escape being caught by Hitler's Gestapo. He lived in Bombay till the time Hitler and his fascists were finished, and then returned to his country. Walter Kaufman was a violinist and also a music composer. During his stay in India, he composed this signature tune for All India Radio, Bombay. the tune used to be played on AIR at 5.55am every morning for 5 minutes, as the radio program would start at 6 o' clock. For many many years, India woke up to this tune. *Pure nostalgia*

[@Boylieboyle]

Very interesting - thank you.

[@blazmaverick]

Thank you so much for this. I loved Kaufmann's book on Nietzsche and his thought has been a cherished companion for many years. It's wonderful to hear this.

[@jasonmitchell5219]

He was a great human being and this is a wonderful lecture.

[@babydrysdale]

I started reading Kaufman to help me read Nietzsche. But now I think I like him as much as the man himself.

[@LJK77777]

Kaufmann was one a dozen influential writers for me now 50 years ago. Increasingly turned to Asian thought (Buddhism mainly) from which they were Romantics in the big sense. A "noble" allure but just another diversion to becoming a whole human Enlightened Being. Anyway, very much appreciate your lectures and welcomed this overdue revisit.

[@joannmace8499]

i discovered Walter Kaufmann when i found a copy of From Shakespeare to Existentialism in a 2nd hand junk store in Leon, Nicaragua... what are the odds!?... it's a brilliant book

[@Alex-dg5rb]

Thank you Wes Cecil. I love your talks.

[@RAKrauss74]

I appreciate your interest in Walter Kaufmann, having been his student in the 1970s, and having read all his works. But he did not share your dismissal of the Old Testament, which he respected very much. By the way, "to covet" is not just "to want." or envy or lust after. The Hebrew verb, lachmod means to want desperately to the point of preparing to take something that belongs another, such that these destructive thoughts will inevitably lead to bad acts.

[@Deantrey]

As always, a big fan of yours Wes. Love your lecture style I could listen to these all day.

[@rashidshaikh8161]

This guy gave the intro music of All India Radio ❤ Can't be thankful enough!!

[@markusbrown7564]

Thank you !

[@jasonwalters2321]

Very enjoyable. I check your channel every week to see if a new lecture has come up. I must say that I'm enjoying this new Forgotten Thinkers series every bit as much as I enjoyed your "Life and Philosophy" series.

[@JabbarRafique]

Appreciate your work. Thank you

[@Havre_Chithra]

Yay! I was wondering what I was going to do tonight. This solves that problem :)

[@alexanderyacht6483]

Actually, Goethe and Napoleon did meet, in Erfurt in 1808. Napoleon was a big fan of Goethe, and when he found that the writer was in Erfurt for the conference with Tsar Alexander, he asked to meet him. They met several times and Napoleon invited Goethe to live in Paris. There's an account in the Durant's "Age of Napoleon." I don't know where you got the idea that they never met.

[@altitudeemc2322]

Very informative and easy to listen to. I loved it

[@patrickirwin3662]

I was a young stoner, a working class after hours philosopher, when I read, Nietzsche, Philosopher Psychologist, AntiChrist and it became my intro to REAL philosophy. I learned German, Latin, Greek in order to understand it, and everything it mentioned which was pretty much everything in western culture and lots beyond. I became, if no less a fool, at least a half educated fool because of Walter Kaufmann. His philosophy of tragic greatness will haunt my psyche in mostly positive ways till the day I die. Truly he was a great and weirdly unrecognized intellectual force in my generation.

[@patrickirwin3662]

Just want to add, I ultimately rejected some of Kaufmann's Critique of Religion. But I would say he kept me free of a lot of errors and every religious person I know could do worse than to make a years retreat to submit every single idea they depend on to Kaufmann's careful detailed critiques.

[@branzo79]

Thanks for your comment. I've started my Nietzsche journey with Walter's Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Really shaking things up.

[@ahtles1]

Hello Wes Cecil, love your work, would you consider doing a lecture on Henry David Thoreau?

[@thomashamelryck5620]

Amazing lecture, full of enthusiasm. Thank you.

[@timmyodaley1411]

Awesome. Thank you

[@moatazmattar4714]

please more often and more frequent!!!!!!

[@alan2here]

you want both? :-o I'd settle for either individually :)

[@usermanne]

Thanks so much!

[@leonardtrollington107]

This was beast mode. Im so grateful....

[@vef444]

I usually listen them two or three times later on.

[@teboleedotcom]

BRILLIANT, AMAZING, SPECTACULAR!!!!!

[@babydrysdale]

Brilliant man

[@quinto34]

Kaufmann is such an interesting thimnker and great writer

[@peterdollins3610]

Great guy.

[@bernardliu8526]

Buddhism does assert that suffering is everlasting, unless one manages to break free from rebirths.

[@piushalg8175]

The description of Kant and his work is just absurd.

[@antoniolima1068]

Kant is no joke and Jung, this criples legitimacy.

[@jarrettzike6538]

Thank you for doing it and doing this one in particular. Whatever it's worth, you've chosen another fantastic individual to rehabilitate, have been midwife to a posthumous birth and are better for it. clink*

[@Iruth27]

Definitely gonna be using the term 'humbitious' from now on.

[@jorgelander4752]

waiting for the next lecture to post is like that time after you've finished binge watching "House of Cards", but no ... seriously. #nerdporn

[@mordechaikohn5434]

According to maimonides and many other medieval thinkers, you don't transgress the prohibition of "do not covet" unless you do actions to acquire the subject.

[@BNardolilli]

Good biographer of Hegel

[@MegaSudjai]

On Failure: I have failed a lot more than I have succeeded, and I have succeeded a lot more than most. Sudjai Cook

[@flacjacket]

I am relatively early in my pursuit of philosophy, it is nice to hear that other people more educated than myself find Kant incoherent. I consume all of my media on double speed (triple when available) but when I tried to listen to Kants Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals I dropped it from 2.0 to 1.75 to 1.5 to normal speed and ultimately decided I couldn't listen to it at all while driving because I couldn't understand it. I have yet to reapproach it, maybe I should just read Kaufmans take on Kant instead.

[@alan2here]

Humble Ambition :) Might work, might not, independent of you doing it well or badly. Try to do well, go for it, expect to fail sometimes and thats fine.

[@BlindEyeJones]

There is considerable agreement between religions on many of the big moral issues which, from my understanding, has to do with man's endowment of natural law and conscience.

[@post-structuralist]

I don't like the idea of natural law. Nobody can explain what it is exactly, just that it is seems what is endowed. Still, whose to say what is natural and that we understand it?

[@fadi_86]

Any chance of transcripts for your lectures?

[@scottfellows9640]

When one says not to engage in adultery and another says that to have covetous thoughts is a sin, they agree that it is wrong to indulge in adulteress ideas. That example related to Kaufmann's definition of love, whereby you wouldn't wish for your partner to do that.

[@MrTittybutt]

I appreciate these lectures very much. I can't help but notice that Wes has a very classist attitude towards philosophy. For example in this lecture the way he's talking about "average" and "trivial" people.. It's quite a bit classism from the all thinkers as well as from the lecturer. It's a thread I've noticed now that I've watched a handful of these youtube videos. Humanity will continue to slide into dark times as we continue to not engender class mobility. The best and brightest won't be leading us. The thinkers who's ideas support the richest among us, and their continued wealth and positions, will be amplified. And all the diamonds in the rough will continue to be ignored at net loss for our world.

[@carefulreader2769]

Goethe it was his example that mattered. Walter was right on this point.

[@PWizz91]

Great lectures but why is it on every lecture there is a creaking table?!

[@jamesharrel]

Could you give a concrete example, with a quote, of how any one of the New Atheist's (presumably one of the "Four Horsemen") writing is "intellectually impoverished," please?

[@bslaer]

He says that Kauffman deals more with what great thinkers said defending religion rather than what the religions actually believe. I haven't read kauffman's books but perhaps the intellectual impoverishment is evident if you do. I met a professor who objected to the philosophy by Sam Harris because there are much more profound discussions about the same topics like free will in nietzsche but a modern audience hasn't read the old stuff and so are impressed by these mediocre discussions. Nicholas nassim taleb says the new aetheists miss the point that religion attracts people in with God to preserve ancestral wisdom that has caused a people to survive and thrive without rationally understanding why. Atheists throws out many things that appear rationally stupid but which have a value that they don't understand. Like scientists saying we know what's in mothers milk we can make a good replacement and save the mother the inconvenience of breast feeding and finding the mother and the infants health compromised as a result because they didn't fully understand what was being thrown away

[@jamesharrel]

Ah, here I was hoping to get a coherent answer from the author himself, but instead got a blether from a charlatan with a very dull axe to grind...

[@christopherhamilton3621]

@@jamesharrel Yeah, I think Cecil is referring more to academic/scholarly arguments & supporting historical & factual information & the fact that these authors (apart from Dennett) aren’t actual philosophers. It’s a somewhat snobbish response, IMO.

[@worldpeace8299]

love these lectures. informative and thought provoking entertainment. same mistakes however when it comes to understanding religion. and that is a pity. what is being criticised here is human institutions and their systems of thought. and the problem lies in human psychology. we are, none of us, obliged to believe or reject things, but rather to contemplate them.

[@grafplaten]

Heidegger did NOT write in the style of Kant. Kant was trying to express himself as clearly as possible, though using terminology and formulations that are not easy to work through, whereas Heidegger was willfully obscure and wrote in a way to mystify the reader...it is more in the tradition of Fichte, Schelling and especially Hegel than of Kant.

[@sawtoothiandi]

i had a go once at deleuze & guattari and had to chuck the book after a few dozen pages, i felt they were being obscurantist, and if they intended their books to be liberating whom did they intend would read them. i feel they may be in the same lineage as you mentioned. i could be wrong, i am a lay person not a trained philosopher. would you have an opinion??

[@christopherhamilton3621]

Yes: it was Hegel who copied Kantian obfuscatoriness.

[@obrotherwhereartliam]

Kaufmann discusses this in a few of his books as it's a recurrent theme in Kaufmann's works. He thought that Kant wrote in an obscure manner on account of his lack of editing. When Kant's works which were obviously impressive nonetheless inspired a wave of philosophers who confused good philosophy with Kant's style. The style carried over to Hegel, who you can see actually see clear delineation of writing style before and after ingesting large servings of Kant. Heidegger did the same, although his first major work was rushed out and not particularly well edited (if at all). It is not uncommon to see it today either, philosophy students who brag about understanding Kant and imitate the obscure writing style.

[@benjaminrobinson965]

If you're going to do people like this, could you PLEASE do Alan Watts?

[@RahellOmer]

I second this!

[@arongamman9360]

Shakesspear to Existentialism was used extensively in my High school Intro to Philosophy class. I remember being impressed by Kaufman's introduction to his translation of Buber's I and You, feeling very drawn to existentialism by Viktor Frankl during the pandemic. Thank you for this intro to Kaufmann.

[@tylermiller4150]

that is a critique of buddhism?

[@mustacheglasses5765]

I like listening to this guy but the person handling the mic really ruins it for me.

[@sherlockholmeslives.1605]

Can a giraffe kill a man?

[@sawtoothiandi]

absolultely

[@ptahars]

these are great .. please do Aleister Crowley !

[@toygirafe]

just read life at the limits.

[@mikibo1]

yeah , professor! this was a too long pause. Even listeners from germany protest allready ! It's called "forgotten thinkers" and not "forgotten uploads"

[@numayr818]

[@sawtoothiandi]

Don Quixote tilted at wind-mills, Drumpf tilts at border-walls, to much the same effect if with much the lesse nobility!!!!

[@westcoastsunsation]

At 4:24 he says the "Jewish church" but there is no such thing. There is a Jewish faith. But not a church.

[@alan2here]

21:51 - No desire to do it, but it's a hilarious mental image, so many confusing practical considerations. Apparently god doesn't like jokes.

[@elisabethgrund-schneider4223]

Profile photo for Gordon Allen Gordon Allen · Follow BA in Military History and Wars , Columbia University (Graduated 1967)4y Related Did Churchill say, “You must understand that this war is not against Hitler or National Socialism, but against the strength of the German people”? I'm not sure about the quote,but it's premise is correct. On this forum I've questioned Churchill's strategic sagacity often. By most objective standards Churchill abjectly failed in his purposes. His hatred was NOT per se against naziism,but was directed at Germany as a nation state.Period. He would have been against any government of a strong Germany. His blindness led to Britain's bankruptcy,loss of empire,loss of great power status,and the loss of Eastern Europe to totalitarian dictatorship ( the ostensible reason for the war being to oppose that). He did succeed in destroying Germany though,and with it the balance of power in Europe.His status in history is certain to decline 1

[@westcoastsunsation]

21:31 how can a so called intellectual not recommend looking in the old testament? I am amazed. Really. How can a person can be so knowledgeable and at the same time so superficial. If you listen carefully you can hear how this guy exposes his true self in the small slips..

[@nickshelbourne4426]

I agree, there is some good information in these lectures but often the lecturer has a superficial interpretation.

[@donalhughes9881]

Maybe this so called intellectual had a point. I'd consider the possibility.

[@christopherhamilton3621]

@@donalhughes9881 Agreed.

[@jessewallace12able]

Kant IS terrible.

[@peanut12345]

Whitewash the Nietzsche archives, if Fred hated is sister why didn't he kick her out. We know why, it is obvious.

[@christopherhamilton3621]

Oh please: she was just a controlling Nazi bitch.

[@OdoItal]

Was enjoying these lectures, but lost respect when I realized what sloppy work this is. Kant is incomprehensible? Far from the case. Heidegger writes in the style of Kant. Not true. You're encouraging people to not even try. What a disservice.