It is amazing how someone can write so clearly about such and an obscure book. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit has unfortunatly been dismissed by many as simple foolishness. Forster's book, however, is excellent at destroying this view. Put Hegel's Phenomenology on one knee and this book on the other. When you read Hegel you forehead will crinkle up and you will stare blankley at pages. "Huh" Then reading Forster, your forehead will relax "Oh, I see" The combination of the two makes for a great journey into the realm of new and exciting ideas. Forster has allowed me to appreciate the great mind of Hegel that otherwise would have remained unknown to me. Outstanding book.

Eight years ago, I began a daily exercise of copying one page of Hegel's Phenomenology into a word processor and then rewriting and distilling it until I could go no further. One hundred and fifty pages later, I gave up. Michael Forster has provided a perspicuous view of the Hegelian landscape I was (often blindly) crawling over. I'm grateful.

Alan Patten's presentation of Hegel's political philosophy is developed in what he calls the "civic humanist" reading. This is a welcome addition to the literature on Hegel scholarship focusing on the issue of freedom. This book was very helpful for my own research and was a true pleasure to read because it is written in a style of prose familiar to contemporary philosophers trained in the analytic tradition, it links Hegel's ideas more closely with those of Kant, and places Hegel within the more mainstream tradition of political theory. Patten's discussion of Hegel's discussion of property rights is especially interesting. Most important, this study places Hegel within a line of thought that is remarkably similar to the civic republican tradition (which is probably why Patten favors a 'civic humanist' reading). Taken together, Patten re-emphasizes the central importance of Hegel's thought for more contemporary political philosophy.

People who avoid Hegel because of his highly specialzied terminology or simply dismiss him as irelevant would do well to read this tightly argued work.

This book was awarded the Best First Book Award from the Foundations of Political Theory section of the American Political Science Association. The award citation reads: "Alan Patten's Hegel's Idea of Freedom is an impressive intellectual achievement very much deserving of the Foundations of Political Theory First Book Prize. Written in vivid but jargon-free prose, Hegel's Idea of Freedom offers a philosophically rigorous account of the central place of the concept of freedom in Hegel's political theory, rightly underscoring the manner in which Hegel's complex discussion of Sittlichkeit (Ethical life) plays a pivotal role in the German philosopher's thinking about western modernity. Although hardly uncritical of Hegel, Patten provides a cautiously supportive exegesis of Hegel's interpretation of the modern world and its core institutions. Patten not only shows how Hegel's argument represents a judicious defense of the quintessentially modern quest to make freedom the central organizing principle of social and political life, but also why Hegel's theoretical framework provides him with the resources necessary to defend key aspects of modernity against critics of many different political and philosophical persuasions. Without overstating his claims, Patten provocatively suggests that Hegel still speaks to contemporary political theory in a host of interesting ways. Patten's book not only revisits Hegel's ideas about many traditional issues in political theory (for example, property and the social contract), but it also offers an excellent critical discussion of major attempts within recent philosophy (for example, in the work of Charles Taylor) to rely on Hegel for contemporary purposes. By emphasizing a side of Hegel's political philosophy often neglected by both sympathizers and detractors, Patten also makes an important contribution towards revising standard accounts of Hegel's place within the history of modern political thought."

This is a stellar editionh of HOlderlin's late poetry, much of which Heidegger focused on; however, I think his earlier stuff is of great value too. ALthough i have not read the Penguin edition, i plan to do so, and i have feeling, knowing penguin, it will be better in my eyes, in that i really enjoy his early stuff too. The notes that come along with the poems in this edition , as well as the introduction are spectacular. If you are unacquainted with HOlderlin, though, i would start out with the Penguin edition. Plus, Penguin books smell so nice.

This is my favorite book of poetry from the last 300 years. What's not to like here? Holderlin is the prince of all great modern German poetry. If you know Rilke, Trakl, Celan, George, or any of the others--come, and meet their godfather. Then there is Holderlin's relation to the past. The blazing richness of ancient Greek poetry, and especially Pindar, is burning more brightly in the poems in this book than in any other modern poetry. The introduction, notes, and facing-page German/English format of this edition are all top notch. These are the Holderlin poems you really want--the stuff that makes Holderlin one of the two or three most brilliant writers in the German language. Don't be fooled by other anthologies--this is a solid, virtually unabridged collection of the LATE poetry. If you really must spend your time with the relatively stale classicism of Klopstock and Schiller, by all means find another edition of Holderlin with more of his less mind-blowingly original work. But, if you buy this book, you will have the cream of all serious poetry since the 18th century.

There is no way to label Holderlin. Of course, you can say he's precociously modern in his response to early Greek poetry about mortality and the divine, or in his freedom from mere "romanticism," but, truly, Holderlin simply stands apart from--and above--the stream of poetry, and this book is the best way to discover that.

Hölderlin's Hyperion is a book for the memory of the mankind. It deals with love and with changing the world too. This great German masterpiece is just poetry in prose. The love scenes of Hyperion and Diotima are maybe the best and beautiful ever written about love, and the drammatic dimension of the piece is so intense, that one always reads it with strong excitement. I have read "Hyperion" several times and it has become my personal bible. Poetry and elation for changing the world. The drama of it.
This version is in the original German. If you are an English reader just look for an english translation. In any case you will be delighted or maybe your life will change as that of mine when I read it for the first time. If the latter applies then you will have soon the necessity of reading it in German (learning German for doing it). I tell you by experience.

This is not a translation. It is entirely in German

I picked up this casette because I've long wanted to know more about the underpinnings of western philosophy--why we think the way we do--what came before and shaped 20th century thought? But who has time to read the great books in a day--or to take extensive coursework in philosophy? This tape was just about the best thing I could have asked for. It took the last 3000 years and rolled them up in a comprehensive and understandable ball. I now stand on a sturdier platform to be able to ask more cogent questions. And I gained this stance by listening during my commute, which is normally a waste of time. (Incidentally, I am now a huge tape fan, and I believe there are about 6 others in the series). Indeed "the unexamined life is not worth living," and now I am clearer on why, but most importantly, who said it.

A wonderful overview of Philosophy, covering the likes of Plato, Aristotle and the rest of the boys. Packed with information, but very comprehensible. Makes you want to learn more about each philosopher. The degree to which certain famous philosophers differ is facinating. I get something out of this audio tape everytime...

I came across this book wandering through a bookstore in 1989. It had a section on Hegel's famous chapter on "Lordship and Bondage," and I thought Davis might have something interesting to add to my already considerable library on the subject. The academic sounding book title suggested a Ph.d thesis turned book or something from the mills of postmodernism, in those years grinding out mind-numbing book-length footnotes to Derrida et al.

Wrong, wrong, wrong! The pages showed an intellect and heart breathtakingly alive and engaged. Despite forbidding sounding chapter titles the prose was beautifully crafted and spoke to my life, my fears, my evasions. I found the book more akin to a sort of wisdom literature, maybe something Ralph Waldo Emerson could have written towards the end of the 20th Century. I read it 2-3 times. Gave it to friends along with advice to ignore the forbidding title and titles to sections.

Later I searched academic journals for reviews and, as I had expected, found none. There is something discomfiting about Davis' book. Maybe Davis meant to scratch your conscience, grapple with intellectual and emotional honesty and courage, put a tack in life's chair -- do those things, that is, that tend to not get one the big symposia at the academic conference. I'm not sure what Davis meant to do, but I have never read such engaged presentations of the likes of Hegel, et al, that so gently yet so relentlessly made me look at the question of how I live.

So, wandering through the Amazon.com jungle, I was greatly encouraged to see that, 12 years later, Davis' book is still available. Give it a try.

In my not-so-humble opinion, Walter Davis's Inwardness and Existence is the most important work of philosophy since Sartre's Being and Nothingness. In this book Davis attempts an astonishing synthesis of 4 seemingly irreconcilable schools of thought: Hegel's self-consciousness, Heidegger's Existentialism, Marxist concepts of ideology and subjectivity, and Freudian psychoanalysis. His goal is a comprehensive and intellectually rigorous theory of "subjectivity," of what we are and how we got that way. Along the way he finds time to write a prose Ode to Death, explore the psychological mysteries of sexuality, provide the best explanation ever written of the Marxist concept of ideology, and intellectually skewer the phony "radical" Professors of academic deconstruction. This is a profound, challenging, wide-ranging book that deserves to be read, re-read, argued with, and discussed. "Put down thy Derrida; open thy Davis!"

In Journeys To Selfhood: Hegel & Kierkegaard, Mark Taylor charted the historical background of philosophy through establishing a creative dialogue between two the 20th Century's most influential philosophers. Hegel and Kierkegaard defined the poles between all significant modern and post-modern theologies ranging from Kierkegaardian neo-orthodoxy to Hegelian "death-of-God" theology, from Hegelian phenomenology and structuralism to Kierkegaardian deconstruction and post-structuralism. This new edition of a classic study, enhanced with an extensive bibliography and index, will be a welcome addition to contemporary philosophy and theology reading lists for students and scholars.

In Journeys To Selfhood: Hegel & Kierkegaard, Mark Taylor charted the historical background of philosophy through establishing a creative dialogue between two the 20th Century's most influential philosophers. Hegel and Kierkegaard defined the poles between all significant modern and post-modern theologies ranging from Kierkegaardian neo-orthodoxy to Hegelian "death-of-God" theology, from Hegelian phenomenology and structuralism to Kierkegaardian deconstruction and post-structuralism. This new edition of a classic study, enhanced with an extensive bibliography and index, will be a welcome addition to contemporary philosophy and theology reading lists for students and scholars.

In _The National System of Political Economy_, Friedrich List advocates an economic policy of nationalism based on the philosophy of protectionism. List argues that protectionism can lead to greater national economic benefit and argues against the system of laissez-faire free trade. The book is divided into four parts: The History, The Theory, The Systems, and The Politics, each focussing on a particular aspect of the theory of protectionism. List rails against the "cosmopolitical" theory of free trade economists such as Adam Smith as espoused in his _Wealth of Nations_. In particular, List contrasts the systems of protectionism in America and Germany against the system of free trade advocated by the British. He gives the history of the rise of the Hanseatic League in Germany against the British. He advocates abolishing the tariffs between the individual German states but erecting a tariff wall around the German nation, thus creating a strong federated Germany. List refers to this as the "insular supremacy of the Continental powers". Against Britain, List advocates a protectionist policy for North America as well. Of particular interest is List's discussion of the difference between agriculture and manufacturing powers. For instance, List contends that an agriculture nation without manufacturing will remain subsidiary to a nation which has manufacturing. Thus, the need for creating a nation which can sustain both manufacturing and agriculture. Rather than the individualistic standpoint of economists such as Adam Smith, List argues for political economy to be seen from the standpoint of the nation. The book contains many further insights into the value of protectionism as a trade policy to create a strong national economy. In a world being continually driven in the direction of mass globalization and technocracy, this book by List offers an alternative policy to maintain national sovereignity. While the classic works of free trade economics are highly important, especially the ideas of their originator Adam Smith, List offers cogent critique based on his nationalistic point of view. In sum, this book provides a much needed remedy to the dangers of globalization and the New World Order. Unfortunately, the advice of nationalist thinkers is not being heeded in today's political climate.

This book is very hard to find now. If you come by it in a large academic library you might note that it hasn't been checked out in a couple of decades or more. It is in fact the first, and probably still the most powerful, challenge to Adam Smith, David Ricardo and colleagues who developed the tenets and assumptions of the Free Trade, Laissez-Faire movement, starting in 1776 with Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations'. Published in the 1840's, it comprehensively compares national systems which promote industrial and agricultural development through tariffs and government support, notably the German and American systems, with the British colonial system of unrestricted Free Trade. It is a powerful indictment of the underlying motives and effects of the colonial system. The book has gone into extreme disfavour and total exclusion from college curriculums as these have gravitated to roles of corporate apologists or to reactions of Marxist and post structural ideology. It cogently presents, however, the argument against the world wide movement to limit economic sovereignty of nation states, and paints a grim picture of the inevitable result of unrestrained Free Markets, notably in the experience of British workers during the Industrial Revolution. The experience of the early to mid 19th Century, where these competing systems could be seen in very pure form by comparing the American and the British models, presents a compelling case for the National System List describes. Our current economic leaders do not want you to read this book, even as the leaks in Globalism start to bust down its dikes and even with a growing body of contrary modern opinion as to the benefit of Free Markets. If you read the 'Wealth of Nations' (or even better Ricardo's theories of Comparative Advantage.. free of Smith's distracting meditations on Moral Sentiments) do your self a favour and read the National System of Political Economy as well and see whose arguments, proven by human experience, win the day. It explains much of what is going on in the world today and presents alternatives to our current path at this critical point in history.

The German version of this book, published in 1894, about 108 years ago, was among the first books written about the books of Nietzsche. The photograph on the cover was taken in May, 1882 and a portion of it (as shown on p. 132) appeared in her book with the caption, "Friedrich Nietzsche, formerly professor and now a wandering fugitive" (p. ix), as Nietzsche had described himself in a letter to the third person in the picture in 1879, "referring to the severance from his ten-year position at the University of Basel." (p. ix). These people are all dead now. When she was 20, Lou wrote a poem "To Sorrow" (pp. xlviii-xlix) which praises it as "the pedestal for our soul's greatness." (p. xlix).

Lou reported a conversation about the changes in his life in which Nietzsche raised the question, "When everything has taken its course--where does one run to then?" and told her, "In any case, the circle could be more plausible than a standing still." (p. 32). She described his books as the product of "his last period of creativity, Nietzsche arrived at his mystical teaching of the eternal recurrence: the picture of a circle--eternal change in an eternal recurrence--stands like a wondrous symbol and mysterious cypher over the entrance to his work." (p. 33).

This book does not have an index, and the notes on pages 160-8 merely clarify a few things, such as the date of the letter from Nietzsche to Lou at the beginning of Part III Nietzsche's "System" on page 91 which Lou used without the final comment, "be what you must be." The possibilities might not be considered so great. "In that regard, if the sickliness of man is, so to speak, his normal condition or his specific human nature itself, and if the concepts of falling ill and of development are seen as almost identical, then we will naturally encounter again the already mentioned decadence at the culmination of a long cultural development." (p. 102). The ascetic ideal "is also a third kind of decadence which threatens to make the described illness incurable and threatens the possibility of recovery. And that form of decadence is embodied in a false interpretation of the world, an incorrect perception of life encouraged by that suffering and illness. . . . every kind of intellectualism extols thinking at the expense of life and supports the ideal of `truth' at the expense of a heightened sensation of living." (p. 103). "In respect to Nietzsche's own psychic problem, it is of less interest to determine correctly the historicity of master morality and slave morality than it is to ascertain the fact that in man's evolution he has carried these contrasts, these antitheses, within himself and that he is the consequent sufferer of this conflict of instincts, embodying double valuations." (p. 113). Ultimately, "Nietzsche's thought of the Dionysian orgy as the means for release of the emotions" (p. 127) are considered "the necessary conditions for the creative act out of which one shapes the luminous and godly." (p. 127). Nietzsche and Schopenhauer are tied to "the deeply pessimistic nature of the Greeks because their innermost life, as revealed through the orgiastic, was one of darkness, pain, and chaos." (p. 127). Art is the answer, here. "The highest or the most religious art is the tragic because within it the artist delivers beauty from the terrifying." (p. 128). Modern society can hardly be comprehended without accepting that much of what is popular is produced in the attempt to satisfy that desire for art.

To scholars and admirers of Nietzsche, Lou Andreas-Salome has always been seen as his Irene Adler, the intellectual equal who got way or was driven away, depending on one's point of view. Although their affair lasted for only a few months, it left an indelible mark on both, for it came at a turning point in Nietzsche's life where he would leave the realtively safe nests of academia and the Wagners for a peripatetic life in the Eupopean Alps.

Over the years we have heard from almost everyone who was anyone in Nietzsche's life, except Lou Salome. This makes the published reprint of her 1894 even more important for those involved in Nietzsche studies. To say that Salome brings a unique perspective to her work is a bit of an understatement, but those who simply expect this to be memoir of the man she knew will be, I think, somewhat joyfully disappointed. Instead she has written what well may be the first attempt to view the persona behind the works. After giving us an excellent analysis of Nietzsche's philosophy, she comes to the conclusion that perhaps Nietzsche's madness was the inevitable result of his philosophy. Was this, as Nietzsche's sister said, merely a fantasy of female revenge? Then simply compare the last page of her book with the events of Nietzche's last days in Turin, events which she cannot have known. Hers is a provactive and illuminating look at Nietzsche, made more powerful by the fact that she was first to the gate and that the strength of her book is the analysis, not the memories.

As with any book on Nietzsche that comes to us in a foreign language, translation is most important if we are to have not only a working understanding, but also a deeper understanding than we would ordinarily expect. That the translator should be the late Siegfried Mandel is only to the reader's advantage. His translation is crisp and clear. His excellent introduction makes it all the more clear to me that this man is, or should be at least considered, one of the formost Nietzschean scholars of his time. (For further reference, see his excellent "Nietzsche and the Jews.")

This is a book every serious student of Nietzsche should have in his or her library and a book that may contribute to a new vision of the tortured harbinger of the overman.

Siegfried Mandel's Nietzsche and the Jews is a title which either attracts instantly or detracts instantly. In my case I was a little put off by the title, for it almost sounds like a parody. When I began to read I noticed the book takes a biographical path with regard to its subject matter, tracing Nietzsche's exposure to anti-Semitism throught his years. I have read many, too many in fact, biographies of Nietzsche and was about ready to '86 this one. I'm glad I didn't, for when I got to the chapters concerning Wagner and Nietzsche, the book suddenly came alive with little known facts based on terrific research. Nietzsche's relationships with Richard and Cosima Wagner, Peter Gast, Paul Ree and Franz Overbeck are examined against the background of German anti-Semitism and Nietzsche's reaction to it.

Also, whereas most books center on sister Elizabeth and Lou Salome when discussing Nietzsche and women, Mandel provides a deep look at the relationship between Nietzsche and Helen Zimmern, his first translator and herself a Jew. Scattered in between are some revealing tidbits about Nietzsche and sexuality rarely revealed in other studies.

Another strong point is the chapters on Jewish scholars and disciples interested in Nietzsche, such as poet Siegfried (Solomon) Lipiner, scientist Josef Paneth, and journalist Paul Lansky. The chapter on critic Georg Brandes is an absolute gem.

Two Appendix chapters on Nietzsche's thought concerning the Jews contain an excellent analysis of Nietzsche's often confusing writings on the subject.

If you are looking for a serious book on this subject, or if you are looking for just a good book on Nietzsche, this one is definitely one to add to your collection.

On such a weird set of subjects, I should limit myself to the remarks on humor. Not listed in the index, but noted in Appendix II on page 321, Nietzsche praised American laughter, as "in the fashion of Mark Twain. I've not been able to laugh along with anything said by Germans." Mark Twain gets credit for having written "Our heavenly father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey." (p. 321) The rest of this book is pretty serious, and it's also well written.