Walter Kaufmann: Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic – An Intellectual Life

Emeritus Prof. Stanley Corngold will speak about his intellectual biography Walter Kaufmann: Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic – An Intellectual Life, recently published by Princeton University Press.

Corngold’s 760-page volume is a powerful account of the astonishingly prolific, erudite and charismatic philosopher, critic, translator, poet and Princeton professor who fled Nazi Germany at the age of eighteen and emigrated to the United States where he went on to single-handedly rehabilitate Nietzsche’s reputation after World War II and was enormously influential in introducing postwar American readers to existentialism.

Corngold recently delivered the prestigious Thomas-Mann-Lecture at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) – Einstein’s old hunting grounds – in Zurich. The lecture, titled “Thomas Mann im Lichte unserer Erfahrung. Zum amerikanischen Exil,” describes Mann’s life and achievements during his residence in Princeton from 1938–1941. It is available online (https://www.video.ethz.ch/campus/bibliothek/thomas_mann.html) and will soon appear in print in the Thomas Mann Jahrbuch (2019).