Walter Kaufmann's 1956 anthology, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, was a landmark in the dissemination of existentialist thought in the English speaking world. Yet despite the popularity of the anthology, Kaufmann's ideas about existentialism have not received the study they deserve. This is true even though Kaufmann made it clear that he had an engaged point of view; that is, a particular story to tell about existentialism and its reception. If we examine the provocative manner that Kaufmann juxtaposed Kierkegaard – (...) the figure he considered to be the first existentialist – with Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and Rilke, we will not only grasp his intentions, we will discover some valuable (and surprising) things about existentialism, its reputation in scholarly literature, and ourselves. (shrink)

Volter Kaufman je ostao upamcen po svom delu o Niceu. Medjutim, od 1950. do kraja zivota, on je stvorio siroki i provokativni opus filozofske kritike. U jezgru Kaufmanovih napora bila je zabrinutost za humanisticke discipline i njihovu ulogu u modernom intelektualnom zivotu. Kaufmanovo glavno promisljanje te teme, delo The Future of the Humanities zasluzuje vise paznje nego sto mu je do sada bilo poklanjano. Ono pronalazi nacin da sjedini dva temeljna cilja savremene teorije, potragu za autenticnoscu i zelju za promovisanjem (...) kritickog duha. Tema ovog clanka jeste nacin na koji je Kaufman postigao te ciljeve, a sto svedoci o njegovoj trajnoj relevantnosti za one kojima je stalo do humanistickih disciplina. (shrink)