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The Problem of Human Life: As Viewed by the Great Thinkers From Plato to the Present Time; Translated From the German
Excerpt from The Problem of Human Life: As Viewed by the Great Thinkers From Plato to the Present Time; Translated From the German
IT is a genuine pleasure to me to see The Problem of Human Life in an English Version, particularly as the translation has been prepared with great care by esteemed friends, and is, I think, entirely successful.
The present book forms the essential complement of all my other works. It is designed to afford historical confirmation of the view that conceptions are determined by life, not life by conceptions. Under the guidance of this conviction the book traverses the whole spiritual development of the Western world, in the hope that the several phases of the development, and, above all, its great personalities, will be brought nearer to the personal experience of the reader than is customarily done. Particularly in an age of predominant specialisation, when the pursuit of learning too often endangers the completeness of living, such an endeavour is fully justified.
I hope that the English-speaking public will give the book a sympathetic reception. With their own thinkers, the problem of life has always stood in the foreground, and scientific re search steadily regarded the whole life of man. Thus my book presents nothing foreign to the genius of the English-speaking peoples: may it be felt and welcomed by them as something kindred to their own aims!
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
IT is a genuine pleasure to me to see The Problem of Human Life in an English Version, particularly as the translation has been prepared with great care by esteemed friends, and is, I think, entirely successful.
The present book forms the essential complement of all my other works. It is designed to afford historical confirmation of the view that conceptions are determined by life, not life by conceptions. Under the guidance of this conviction the book traverses the whole spiritual development of the Western world, in the hope that the several phases of the development, and, above all, its great personalities, will be brought nearer to the personal experience of the reader than is customarily done. Particularly in an age of predominant specialisation, when the pursuit of learning too often endangers the completeness of living, such an endeavour is fully justified.
I hope that the English-speaking public will give the book a sympathetic reception. With their own thinkers, the problem of life has always stood in the foreground, and scientific re search steadily regarded the whole life of man. Thus my book presents nothing foreign to the genius of the English-speaking peoples: may it be felt and welcomed by them as something kindred to their own aims!
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
- GenresPhilosophyHistory
231 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1890
1 person is currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Rudolf Christoph Eucken
91 books26 followersRudolf Christoph Eucken (German: [ˈɔʏkn̩]; 5 January 1846 – 15 September 1926) was a German philosopher. He received the 1908 Nobel Prize for Literature "in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life".
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 18, 2023
My comments in video: https://youtu.be/bkINhApbhpc
An excellent exposition of the needs of the spirit and life, seen through history by the main philosophers. His historical, evolutionary approach seems to me an antecedent of the creative evolution of Henri Bergson, but deeply religious.
Here I share my own reflection that his historical journey gave me, where opposites are always raised that dialectically generate progress; but that I identify not as a duality but a trinity. I would like to know your opinions on my approach.
On the other hand, I really liked the approach in which he presents us with thinkers as heroes who represent an attitude towards life, a religious existence (in Kierkegaard's way) with their approaches. I also find the explanation of why some philosophers have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, since this is constituted as a literary creation that also supports it, justifying its important role for human development within its creative activity in the world. Finally, I would like you to help me investigate why this great thinker, despite the award, seems to fall into oblivion. Thank you
An excellent exposition of the needs of the spirit and life, seen through history by the main philosophers. His historical, evolutionary approach seems to me an antecedent of the creative evolution of Henri Bergson, but deeply religious.
Here I share my own reflection that his historical journey gave me, where opposites are always raised that dialectically generate progress; but that I identify not as a duality but a trinity. I would like to know your opinions on my approach.
On the other hand, I really liked the approach in which he presents us with thinkers as heroes who represent an attitude towards life, a religious existence (in Kierkegaard's way) with their approaches. I also find the explanation of why some philosophers have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, since this is constituted as a literary creation that also supports it, justifying its important role for human development within its creative activity in the world. Finally, I would like you to help me investigate why this great thinker, despite the award, seems to fall into oblivion. Thank you
January 23, 2023
The Problem of Human Life is quite hard to read, I admit it.
The book basically does what the title reads, it goes from Plato and the Greeks thinkers to the early Positivists, and in the meantime Rudolf Eucken shows the evolution of thinking and philosophical matters in a very subjective way, quite critic in some parts, so this book is anything but an objective approach to philosophy.
You get what you expect when you open it for the first page, so definitely it's not the most interesting book, neither a best-seller, but probably a masterpiece in its genre.
It provides a wide perspective of how philosophy has addressed the common mankind problems (moral,
ethics, etc) so 5 starts because of that. And because it's the most representative book from a nobel-prize author (1908) and I'm far from being even close to that.
The book basically does what the title reads, it goes from Plato and the Greeks thinkers to the early Positivists, and in the meantime Rudolf Eucken shows the evolution of thinking and philosophical matters in a very subjective way, quite critic in some parts, so this book is anything but an objective approach to philosophy.
You get what you expect when you open it for the first page, so definitely it's not the most interesting book, neither a best-seller, but probably a masterpiece in its genre.
It provides a wide perspective of how philosophy has addressed the common mankind problems (moral,
ethics, etc) so 5 starts because of that. And because it's the most representative book from a nobel-prize author (1908) and I'm far from being even close to that.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews