William Barrett
(1921-1980)
Walter Kaufmann did more than anyone to introduce the work of
Friedrich Nietzsche to English-speaking philosophers. He also rescued Nietzsche's thought from the misuse by Nazism. Nietsche's images of an "Overman" and the "Will to Power" were widely used in Nazi propaganda.
Kaufmann's translations and scholarly interpretations of Nietzsche and other existentialist thinkers such as
Martin Heidegger and
Jean-Paul Sartre led to the flourishing of continental philosophy in American universities after World War II.
Existentialism was the major alternative to the logical positivist philosophy of
Bertrand Russell and the young
Ludwig Wittgenstein and the analytic language philosophy of the later Wittgenstein, which evolved into the post-modernist philosophy of the 1960's.
Heidegger and
Jacques Derrida were major sources for the
deconstructive post-modernism which moved from philosophy departments in the U.S. to English departments under the influence of
Richard Rorty.
Normal |
Teacher |
Scholar
|
