Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy (Yale Nota Bene S)

One of the founders of existentialism, the eminent philosopher Karl Jaspers here presents for the general reader an introduction to philosophy. In doing so, he also offers a lucid summary of his own philosophical thought. In Jaspers’ view, the source of philosophy is to be found “in wonder, in doubt, in a sense of forsakenness,” and the philosophical quest is a process of continual change and self-discovery. In a new foreword to this edition, Richard M. Owsley provides a brief overview of Jaspers’ life and achievement.

“An eloquent expression of a great hope that philosophy may again become an activity really relevant not only to the perennial problems of life and death but to the unusual configurations of such problems in our time.”―Julian N. Hartt, Yale Review

“Original, sincere, cultivated, and stimulating.”―Philosophy

German philosopher, physician, and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers was born in 1883 and died in 1969. The great translator Ralph Manheim rendered in English such twentieth-century classics as Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum and Louis-Ferdinand Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night. Richard M. Owsley, professor of philosophy at North Texas University, is president of the Karl Jaspers Society of North America.