From Shakespeare to Existentialism: An Original Study : Essays on Shakespeare and Goethe, Hegel and Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Freud, Jaspers, Heidegger, and Toynbee

Walter A. Kaufmann

Princeton University Press, Jul 21, 1980 - Literary Criticism - 455 pages

A classic book by one of the twentieth century's most innovative and adventurous thinkers

First published in 1959, From Shakespeare to Existentialism offers Walter Kaufmann's critical interpretations of some of the greatest minds in Western philosophy, religion, and literature. Few scholars can match Kaufmann's range of interests, from intellectual history and comparative religion to psychology, art, and architecture. In this illuminating and wide-ranging book, he traces the evolving Aristotelian ideal of the great-souled individual, showing how it was forgotten by medieval Christendom but recovered by Shakespeare and apotheosized by Nietzsche. An invaluable companion to his Critique of Religion and Philosophy, this volume presents Kaufmann at his most trailblazing, charting new directions in Western thought while providing bold perspectives on figures such as Goethe, Hegel, Rilke, and Freud.

About the author

Walter Kaufmann (1921-1980) was the Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he taught for more than thirty years. His many books include Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist and Critique of Religion and Philosophy (both Princeton).

Bibliographic information

• Title: From Shakespeare to Existentialism: An Original Study : Essays on Shakespeare and Goethe, Hegel and Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Freud, Jaspers, Heidegger, and Toynbee; Princeton paperbacks; Princeton paperbacks. Philosophie
• Author: Walter A. Kaufmann
• Translated by: Walter A. Kaufmann
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1980
• ISBN: 0691013675, 9780691013671
• Length: 455 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare; Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Religion; Philosophy / Aesthetics; Philosophy / General; Philosophy / History & Surveys / General; Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern; Philosophy / Movements / Phenomenology