INTERPRETING EXISTENTIALISM

JASPERS, KARL.

Vernunft und Existenz.

Groningen, Batavia, 1935. 8vo. Original printed green wrappers. Light sunning to spine and upper part of front wrapper, otherwise a very fine, fresh and clean copy, also internally. Old owner's name to title-page, dated 1947. (8), 115 pp.

First edition of Jasper's seminal work "Reason and Existence", which constitutes one of the most important contributions to the interpretation of the two great existentialists, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, as well as a primary witness to the anti-Nazi philosophy of pre-World War II philosophy and the themes that divided the great philosophers of the era. It is in this work that Jaspers introduces the concept of "das Umgreifende".

The German philosopher and psychiatrist, Karl Theodor Jaspers (1883-1969) was one of the main exponents of existentialism in Germany and he had an enormous impact on theology, psychiatry and philosophy of his time.

The present work constitutes the five lectures on reason and existence that he gave at the University of Groningen in Holland during the spring of 1935, a series of lectures that introduce us to the main themes of the philosophy of the influential thinker.

Order-nr.: 38240