Walter Kaufmann

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.

• Region — Western philosophy • Era — 20th-century philosophy • Name — Walter Kaufmann • Born — 1 July 1921 • Birthplace — Freiburg, Baden, Weimar Germany • Died — 4 September 1980 • Place of death — Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. • Thesis Url — https: www.proquest.com/docview/301860602 • Thesis Year — 1947 • School Tradition — Continental philosophy Existentialism • Workplaces — Princeton University • Main Interests — Existential philosophy, philosophy of religion, tragedy and philosophy • Education — Williams College Harvard University (MA, PhD) • Thesis Title — Nietzsche's Theory of Values

Walter Kaufmann was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, on 1 July 1921. 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 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. 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 was married to Hazel. Kaufmann died, aged 59, on 4 September 1980.

• (1950) Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist • (1958) Critique of Religion and Philosophy • (1959) From Shakespeare to Existentialism, rev. ed. (1960), republished, with a new preface (1980) • (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

• (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)

• (1954) The Portable Nietzsche. Viking. • (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 • (1970) Hegel's Political Philosophy • (1975) Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre

• '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, vol. 17, no. 1, 1955, pp. 1–22. • "Toynbee and Superhistory", Partisan Review, vol. 22, no. 4, Fall 1955, pp. 531–541. Reprinted in • "Art, Tradition, and Truth", Partisan Review, XVII, Winter 1955, pp. 9–28 • “Kierkegaard.” The Kenyon Review, vol. 18, no. 2, 1956, 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. • "The Riddle of Oedipus: Tragedy and Philosophy" The Isenberg memorial lecture series, 1965-1966, 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.

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• 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.