Sartre in 60 Minutes
Sartre in 60 Minutes

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2016-07-08

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 3741227722

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sartre is surely one of the most important philosophers of the 20th Century. His “philosophy of existence” influenced not just academic debate but the whole of Western civilization, especially European youth. In France, from the end of WW2 on into the 1960s, a certain “youth culture” milieu composed of secondary school and university students and young artists and intellectuals proclaimed their “existential” attitude to life by wearing the black clothes and horn-rimmed glasses that Sartre was seen to wear in so many photos from the period. The motto of these “existentialists” ran: ‘do not let anyone else tell you how you are to live’. They advocated a frank and intensive style of life, both as regards friendships and love affairs and political commitments. Sartre was the great philosopher of freedom. No other philosopher has so strongly emphasized the freedom of the human will. And because Man is free he must make something out of his life and lives as he believes it right to live, if necessary contrary to existing social rules and traditions. Sartre, for example, opposed many of his country’s wars, fought for a more just society, launched many petitions, and carried on a so-called “open relationship” with his lifelong companion Simone de Beauvoir. In his principal work Being and Nothingness Sartre also became one of the first philosophers to explore the nature of “love”. How does love actually work? What does it mean to lead a free and self-determined life? How free are we? The book Sartre in 60 Minutes explains the most important of Sartre’s theses in a clear and comprehensible way, keeping close to Sartre’s own text and including over fifty selected passages from his work and focussing on the central theme of his ideas about freedom and the structure of inter-human relations. In the chapter on “what use Sartre’s discovery is to us today” it is then shown how important Sartre’s thoughts still are for our personal lives and for the society of the 21st Century. The book forms part of the popular series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.

Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes - Volume 2
Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes - Volume 2

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2016-08-04

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 3741241466

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes” is the second ‘omnibus’ volume drawn from the popular book-series of the same name. It comprises the five books, already published as separate volumes, "Marx in 60 Minutes", "Freud in 60 Minutes", "Sartre in 60 Minutes", "Camus in 60 Minutes", and "Heidegger in 60 Minutes". Each short study sums up the key idea at the heart of each respective thinker and asks the question: “Of what use is this key idea to us today?” But above all the philosophers get to speak for themselves. Their most important statements are prominently presented, as direct quotations, in speech balloons with appropriate graphics, with exact indication of the source of each quote in the author’s works. Between 40 and 80 representative passages are given from the work of each of the five philosophers. This light-hearted but nonetheless scholarly precise rendering of the ideas of each thinker makes it easy for the reader to acquaint him- or herself with the great questions of our lives. Because every philosopher who has achieved global fame has posed the “question of meaning”: what is it that holds, at the most essential level, the world together? There have emerged here a range of very different answers. In Marx, it is the relations of production – that is to say, the conditions under which we labour and produce the goods we need – which ultimately determine our sense of our lives, our thinking, and our whole culture. In Freud, it is the libido and thus the energy of our drives, which we can either live out, repress, or sublimate. In Sartre it is the absolutely free human will which compels Man to make himself what he is. In Heidegger, what absorbs us is the struggle for the authenticity of ‘Dasein’ and the ‘care’ for the Being of the world. Camus is the only philosopher in this series who gives no answer at all to the “question of meaning”. There is no “meaning”, says Camus; life is absurd and depends merely upon a sequence of random chance events. In other words, the meaning of the world and thus of our own lives remains, among philosophers, a topic of great controversy. One thing, though, is sure: each of these five thinkers struck, from his own perspective, one brilliant spark out of that complex crystal that is the truth.

Rawls in 60 Minutes
Rawls in 60 Minutes

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2020-02-17

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 3750427844

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

John Rawls's masterpiece A Theory of Justice was discussed all over the world already during the author's lifetime. Its very title is provocative since it is generally believed that there can be no general theory of justice: what is just for one man is unjust for another. But Rawls succeeds nonetheless in giving a definition of a just society. To do this he develops a brilliant procedure: choice from behind a "veil of ignorance". If we are to choose, absolutely fairly and objectively, how property, income and education are to be justly distributed, then the people choosing must not know in advance whether, in the society they choose, they will be rich or poor, male or female, worker or employer, educated or uneducated, talented or untalented. Because a rich man is likely to find great differences in wealth just, a poor man unjust. Only a "veil of ignorance", says Rawls, "forces each to take the welfare of others into account". Such a choice "behind a veil" could, of course, never actually take place. But if it did, says Rawls, then it would produce the only two perfectly just principles of justice that can be applied to a society: the equality principle and the "difference principle". By these the quality of every modern society can be measured. What do these principles mean in detail? And can the same thought-experiment work in other contexts? If, for example, we did not know whether, in a future society, we would be humans or animals, would we then choose a vegetarian society? Rawls surely sets off, with his Theory of Justice, a whole firework display of ground-breaking new ideas. This introduction to Rawls appears as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes".

Popper in 60 Minutes
Popper in 60 Minutes

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13: 3750470898

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Karl Popper (1902-1994) is one of the great thinkers of the modern age. He developed his key idea, the "open society" already at age 17. Popper at the time believed passionately in Newton's theory of gravitation, by which the science of the day explained the motion of all bodies on earth and in the heavens. But during the great eclipse of 1919 observations were made that confirmed for the first time Einstein's theory of relativity. The London Times wrote: "Scientific Revolution; New Theory of the Universe; Newton's Conception Overthrown." If this is so, concluded Popper, and if a genius like Newton can prove to have been wrong and his knowledge, after two hundred years, can be replaced by a better knowledge, then perhaps there are no such things as truths "true once and for all". It was at this point that he developed his brilliant key idea: "Scientific knowledge is not knowledge; it is only conjectural knowledge." Every scientific theory must count as "true" only for so long as it cannot be refuted by some counter-example or replaced by a better theory. And just for this reason modern society must always be open to critiques and new theories. This applies also, indeed quite especially, to politics. Instead of calling, like Plato, for an ideal state, or pursuing, like Marx and Hegel, "totalitarian" philosophical-historical goals, the scientific method of trial and error must also be applied to politics. Was Popper right? Is all our knowledge merely conjectural knowledge resting on trial and error? And did Plato, Hegel and Marx really pave the way for totalitarianism? Is what we need to improve society really rather the method of "hard science"? Can we solve our problems using Popper's "piecemeal social technology"? Popper gives clear and unmistakable answers. The book appears as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes".

Hegel in 60 Minutes
Hegel in 60 Minutes

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2016-07-08

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 3741227676

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Already as a student Hegel was often reprimanded for excessive drinking and gambling and he is surely one of the most unconventional – today, one might say “coolest” – thinkers of all time. He is sometimes mockingly accused of having been drunk when he hit on his key idea of a “World Spirit”. Nevertheless, his philosophy remains fascinating and highly relevant even today. Hegel was the first philosopher to realize the full implications of the dimension of “becoming”. He can fairly be called the Charles Darwin of philosophy. Because for Hegel everything – literally everything – is in constant motion. Human life has as much the character of a process as do Nature and History. A human being comes into the world as a tiny baby and becomes a child, an adolescent and finally an adult. Likewise, human history marches onward from small beginnings. One epoch follows another. The expression “spirit of the times” that we use so casually today is in fact one we owe to Hegel’s great discovery that every epoch possesses a specific spirit that completely permeates it. This “spirit of the age” – or, as Hegel also called it, “World Spirit” – manifests itself in all the ideas held by this age’s people regarding morality, justice, art, music and architecture. But Hegel says more. A second contention central to his great philosophical discovery was that these different epochs and their “spirits” do not follow one another merely randomly and by chance but rather obey a logical principle of movement: the so-called “dialectic”. The pendulum of history swings, “dialectically”, first in one direction, then in the other. But human history is nonetheless steering its way, slowly but unstoppably, toward a great final goal. The book Hegel in 60 Minutes explains, using the best quotations from Hegel’s work and many examples, how this “dialectic”, and thus the motor of human history, is argued by him to function. Many books claim to clearly explain the ideas of the notoriously difficult philosopher Hegel. But this one really does this. All the exciting questions raised by Hegel’s fascinating philosophical vision are all answered here: at what point do we reach “the end of History”? Are we only spectators of this History, or actors in it? Who or what is the “World Spirit”? What is the meaning of life? Of what use is Hegel’s discovery to us today? The book forms part of the popular series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.

Camus in 60 Minutes
Camus in 60 Minutes

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2016-07-08

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 3741227730

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Albert Camus was a legend in his own lifetime, as a successful author, a philosopher and a “ladies’ man”. His philosophical discoveries remain provocative even today. Because, like all great philosophers, Camus posed the question of the meaning of life. But his answer to this question was an answer of an entirely new kind. This question as to the meaning of life has been answered, of course, very differently down the centuries. For Plato it is ‘the Good’ that holds the world together; for Hegel the ‘World-Spirit’; for Marx the relations of production; for Sartre freedom; for Nietzsche ‘will to power’; and for Habermas the development of communicative reason. Really, each philosopher has his own answer to this question. But Camus is the exception here. He has none. Or rather, worse: he has an answer, but one of very sobering effect. His answer to the question ‘what is the meaning of life?’ is simply ‘It has no meaning. Life is absurd’. We plan ahead and make decisions, but in the last analysis our whole life depends on a series of chance events over which we have no control. Nor is there really a goal. Nevertheless, it is our task to live proudly and undauntedly on. Camus compares the life of Man with the myth of Sisyphus. The mythical Sisyphus strained tirelessly to push a boulder up a mountainside, even though it always rolled back down before he reached the top. But precisely in this apparently senseless and absurd activity lay, argued Camus, a chance for a fulfilled life. Camus explains to us how we can live with absurdity. We must, he says, imagine Sisyphus happy. The book Camus in 60 Minutes explains, using selected quotations and examples, this theory of “the absurd” as it is developed by Camus in his main philosophical works The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel. The chapter on “what use Camus’ discovery is for us today” describes the “absurd style of life” that Camus recommends. Camus’ colourful examples of “absurd life-projects”, and his descriptions of how one best confronts “the absurd” itself and leads a life without God or ideological orientation are, above all in our modern societies, of powerful relevance and topicality. The book forms part of the popular series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.

Heidegger in 60 Minutes
Heidegger in 60 Minutes

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2016-07-08

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 3741227757

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Heidegger is without a doubt one of the most important thinkers in the history of the Western world. He called his philosophy a “fundamental ontology” because he wanted to show the very deepest foundations of Man’s understanding of himself and the world. His interest as a philosopher extended beyond the individual sciences to the underlying question of the meaning of life as a whole. His key question, then, was: “What is the meaning of Being?” But if we are to ask about the meaning of Being, and thus about the meaning of life, we must – so Heidegger argues – first look into the question of just what kind of being it is that poses such questions. This question-posing being, he says, is Man himself. Man is the only living being who can and must ask such questions. Man is constantly looking for orientation. This is why Heidegger also describes human life as a great challenge. Life does not live itself but rather requires constant decisions in order to be lived. But this also means that we can, potentially, fail to realize the meaning of our own life. Heidegger provocatively suggests that most people fail to live out their existence (as he puts it) “authentically”. He confronts us with the fact that, generally speaking, we live our lives doing “the things you’re supposed to do”. “You’re supposed” to go to school, then to university, to get a well-paid job, to take an annual holiday – and so this is what we do, how we live our lives. Instead of living authentic lives of our own, we stay within the tracks made safe and worn by others. But how do I know what life would be authentically mine? How do I make out the life that I am “destined” for? The book Heidegger in 60 Minutes uses key passages quoted from Heidegger’s own works to explain the philosopher’s famous “existential analysis” in a clearly comprehensible way. It takes the reader on an adventurous journey to the deepest structures of his or her own existence. There will surely be few readers of the chapters on the “’care’ character of human existence” or “anxiety in the face of nothingness” who will not recognize something of their own life-experience in the “existential” structures laid bare by Heidegger. In the chapter on “what use Heidegger’s discovery is to us today” it is then shown how broadly and topically relevant Heidegger’s thoughts still are for our personal lives and for the society of the 21st Century. The book forms part of the popular series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.

Nietzsche in 60 Minutes
Nietzsche in 60 Minutes

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2018-06-21

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 3752803827

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Nietzsche has the reputation of being the most provocative and controversial of all philosophers. What he demanded of humanity was something tremendous: that we should develop beyond ourselves and become "overmen". Formerly, we could draw a meaning for our lives from religion. But this is no longer possible because, as Nietzsche says: "God is dead!" This brief dictum has echoed around the world. Man, Nietzsche argues, has freed himself, with the rise of the natural sciences, from all belief in a "beyond" and now has, for the first time, the chance to take his existence into his own hands. Most human beings, however, prove unable to fill the gap in their lives that the "death of God" has left. They continue to seek salvation in such new gods, or idols, as nationalism, socialism, racism, or capitalism. But instead of slipping into the blind worship of these new gods, or "godlets", we need - so argues Nietzsche - rather to trust in our own selves, allow our own "will to power" to unfold, and become "overmen". Just as flowers stretch up toward the sun and animals seek constantly after nourishment, we human beings too must struggle every day to secure our lives and render them richer and more intense. In daily life, conducting this struggle must always mean, in part, conducting it at other people's expense: whoever, for example, applies for a job as a manager and gets it will necessarily cause bitter disappointment among those who applied and failed. "One furthers one's ego always at the expense of others", writes Nietzsche. But "will to power" finds a whole series of very different forms of expression. The artist, the father of a family, the politician, the businessman, the employee, indeed every one of us individually, must find his or her own highly personal and particular path to self-development. "Become who you are!" "Nietzsche in 60 Minutes" explains his exhilarating philosophy step by step making use of some 160 of the most important passages from his works.

Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes - Volume 1
Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes - Volume 1

Author: Walther Ziegler

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2017-03-09

Total Pages: 570

ISBN-13: 3741241458

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes Volume 1" comprises the five books, already published as separate volumes, "Plato in 60 Minutes", "Rousseau in 60 Minutes", "Smith in 60 Minutes", "Kant in 60 Minutes", and "Hegel in 60 Minutes". Each short study sums up the key idea at the heart of each respective thinker and asks the question: "Of what use is this key idea to us today?" But above all the philosophers get to speak for themselves. Their most important statements are prominently presented, as direct quotations, in speech balloons with appropriate graphics, with exact indication of the source of each quote in the author's works. This light-hearted but nonetheless scholarly precise rendering of the ideas of each thinker makes it easy for the reader to acquaint him- or herself with the great questions of our lives. Because every philosopher who has achieved global fame has posed the "question of meaning": what is it that holds, at the most essential level, the world together? There have emerged here a range of very different answers. In Plato, for example, the "Idea of the Good" is that to which we need to open our souls; in Rousseau, it is rather only in our own original nature that we need to trust; in Adam Smith, it is in self-interest, which spurs on each individual and is finally transformed, by an "invisible hand", into the common good; in Kant it is the application of Reason which frees us and makes us capable of extraordinary moral actions; and in Hegel, finally, everything is held together by the dialectical self-development of the World-Spirit, which drives onward from epoch to epoch through the deeds of individuals and of nations until it has finally reached its great goal. In other words, the meaning of the world and thus of our own lives remains, among philosophers, a topic of great controversy. One thing, though, is sure: each of these five thinkers struck, from his own perspective, one brilliant spark out of that complex crystal that is the truth.

The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre
The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre

Author: Jean-Paul Sartre

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2003-05-27

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 1400076323

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This unique selection presents the essential elements of Sartre's lifework -- organized systematically and made available in one volume for the first time in any language.