Philosophy of Life: German Lebensphilosophie 1870-1920

by Frederick C. Beiser

Philosophy of Life explores the intellectual movement called Lebensphilosophie, which flourished in Germany from 1870 until 1920. Author Frederick C. Beiser focuses on its most prominent Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Georg Simmel. Lebensphilosophie appeared at a critical movement in Western culture; it was a response to several important cultural developments of the late 19th atheism, relativism, historicism
and pessimism. The Lebensphilosophen believed that meaning of life had to be found in life itself and denied the relevance of any transcendent realm of meaning. To affirm the value of life, they reacted against Schopenhauer's pessimism; they proclaimed that the joys of life outweighed its sorrows, and that there is an infinite
value in living life to its fullest. They developed a radical individualist ethic, which proclaimed the value of individual self-realization above all other goods. As part of this radical individualism, they disputed the existence of absolute moral values; and by insisting on the historicity of life, they affirmed the relativity of all values. This was the first intellectual movement in the Western tradition to develop an entirely secular and humanist conception of life. Many of its doctrines
are familiar to students of Nietzsche; but readers will find that he was only one of an entire intellectual movement.

Genres: Philosophy

182 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 21, 2023

About the author

Frederick C. Beiser, one of the leading scholars of German Idealism, is a Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University. Prior to joining Syracuse, he was a member of the faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington where he received a 1999-2000 NEH Faculty Fellowship. He has also taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Harvard and Yale University. Beiser earned his DPhil. degree from Oxford University under the direction of Charles Taylor and Isaiah Berlin.

Beiser's first book, The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte (Harvard, 1987) was widely influential in revising the commonly held, but notorious accounts of German Idealism. In this book, Beiser sought to reconstruct the background of German Idealism through the narration of the story of the Spinoza or Pantheism controversy. Consequently, a great many figures, whose importance was hardly recognized by the English speaking philosophers, were given their proper due.
Beiser has also written on the German Romantics and 19th century British philosophy.

Reviews

[Anmol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this mostly to see Beiser's take on Nietzsche: his works have introduced me to much of the history of German philosophy, and so I thought it would be intriguing to know his thoughts on one of my favourites. I think overall, Beiser has a straightforward take on the early and middle-period of Nietzsche, but he does not discuss the later Nietzsche - of Zarathustra, Genealogy, and BGE - sufficiently. I did not begin this book with any clue about who Dilthey and Simmel were, but I actually found Simmel's take on religion to be quite appealing, so there's that. All in all, not a very essential read, and it might have been much more interesting to have Beiser do a full-length monograph on Nietzsche like he did with Hegel, because he does have some interesting takes on Nietzsche's ties with Romanticism, and in wondering whether Nietzsche had not yet spoken his last word about religion (he rightly notes that The Antichrist, ironically, is much more amenable to Christ himself than Nietzsche's earlier works).

[Vathek · Rating 4 out of 5]

The architecture of this book is not as sound as that in the author's other works: the separation of chapters based on subject-matter instead of author obscures their distinctions, especially since the gigantic figure of Nietzsche tends to overshadow those of Dilthey and Simmel. But it's still Beiser, with his halcyon rationalism, and his rigorous, Doric simplicity: he defines, orders, and defends the thoughts of these men with his usual consummate skill. Warmly recommended to all students of conceptual history, but especially the readers of Beiser's previous works. This is a fitting continuation to his saga of German philosophy.

[Igor Capelari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Queria ter gostado mais de um livro tão bem escrito e pesquisado. Ele é, de fato, uma introdução. A apresentação do pensamento já tão popular de Nietzsche foi uma péssima escolha.