Explore the latest books of this year!
Bookbot

Karl Löwith

    January 9, 1897 – May 26, 1973

    Karl Löwith was a German philosopher who primarily explored the influence of Christianity on modern historical consciousness. His work delves into how Western views of history have been shaped by the complex relationship between faith and secular perspectives. Löwith critically examines how the modern understanding of history, while rooted in Christian traditions, often lacks its foundational faith. His insights reveal a pervasive tendency toward an eschatological view of human progress.

    Von Hegel zu Nietzsche
    Correspondence
    Martin Heidegger and European nihilism
    Meaning in History
    Max Weber and Karl Marx
    Nietzsche's philosophy of the eternal recurrence of the same
    • This is a key text in modern interpretations of alienation in Marxist theory and rationalization in Weber's sociology. It remains the best student introduction to the differences and comparisons between these two essential thinkers.

      Max Weber and Karl Marx
    • Meaning in History

      • 266 pages
      • 10 hours of reading
      4.0(155)Add rating

      Modern man sees with one eye of faith and one eye of reason. Consequently, his view of history is confused. For centuries, the history of the Western world has been viewed from the Christian or classical standpoint—from a deep faith in the Kingdom of God or a belief in recurrent and eternal life-cycles. The modern mind, however, is neither Christian nor pagan—and its interpretations of history are Christian in derivation and anti-Christian in result. To develop this theory, Karl Löwith—beginning with the more accessible philosophies of history in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries and working back to the Bible—analyzes the writings of outstanding historians both in antiquity and in Christian times. "A book of distinction and great importance. . . . The author is a master of philosophical interpretation, and each of his terse and substantial chapters has the balance of a work of art."—Helmut Kuhn, Journal of Philosophy

      Meaning in History
    • Martin Heidegger and European Nihilism makes available in English Lowith's major writings concerning the origins of cultural breakdown in Europe that paved the way for the Third Reich. Including incisive discussions of Heidegger and Carl Schmitt, a noted legal theorist of the same period who also supported the Third Reich, Heidegger and European Nihilism helps to illuminate the allure of Nazism for scholars committed to revolutionary nihilism. Lowith's landmark essay on European nihilism is also included in its entirety here, along with two never-before-published letters from Heidegger to Lowith. In a work of impressive historical depth, Lowith traces the abandonment of higher European ideals in favor of a fatal flirtation with nihilism. These essays explore the enthronement of man above God, a trend that had begun to appear in European thought by the mid-nineteenth century in the works of Nietzsche and Marx and one that informed the nihilist philosophies of Heidegger and other theorists of the early twentieth century. An introduction by editor Richard Wolin provides lucid commentary, placing the three essays gathered here in a broad historical context, along with suggestions for further reading. This seminal work of intellectual history sheds light on the fascist impulses of nihilism in the first half of the twentieth century, but also offers unique perspective on the intellectual malaise of today.

      Martin Heidegger and European nihilism
    • Correspondence

      1919-1973

      • 336 pages
      • 12 hours of reading

      The book offers a comprehensive collection of the correspondence between philosopher Martin Heidegger and his student Karl Löwith, shedding light on their intellectual exchanges and personal relationship. This unprecedented compilation enhances the understanding of German intellectual and cultural history, providing insights into Heidegger's philosophical development and the influence he had on Löwith.

      Correspondence
    • Von Hegel zu Nietzsche

      Der revolutionäre Bruch im Denken des 19. Jahrhunderts

      Diese zum Klassiker avancierte Studie zur Geschichte des deutschen Geistes im 19. Jahrhundert sucht das Schicksal des Hegelschen Denkens zu erfassen: die Umbildung und Verkehrung der Philosophie des absoluten Geistes durch Marx und Kierkegaard, den Umschlag des geschichtlichen Denkens in das Verlangen nach Ewigkeit bei Nietzsche. Die Erstausgabe erschien 1941 in New York. Der Text dieser Studienausgabe folgt der leicht gekürzten 2. Auflage von 1950.

      Von Hegel zu Nietzsche
    • Mein Leben in Deutschland vor und nach 1933

      Ein Bericht

      • 224 pages
      • 8 hours of reading

      Wissenschaftsgeschichte im neuen Licht. Die Nazis unterbrachen 1935 die Karriere des aufstrebenden Philosophen und Heidegger-Schülers Karl Löwith abrupt. Der Grund: seine jüdische Herkunft. 1940 im Exil rechnet Löwith mit seinem Deutschtum und mit falschen Weggefährten ab. Erstmals erscheint der Bericht jetzt im vollen Wortlaut des Originals. Ergänzt um eine Fülle von neuen Erkenntnissen und Materialien, treten jetzt Verflechtungen und Netzwerke zu Tage, die bislang im Dunkeln geblieben waren.

      Mein Leben in Deutschland vor und nach 1933