Human Existence and Transcendence

Wahl, Jean; Hackett, William C. (trans/ed.); Hart, Kevin (fwd.)

ISBN 10: 026810106X / ISBN 13: 9780268101060

Published by University of Notre Dame Press, 2016, 2016

About this Item

8vo, hardcover, lx, 151pp. First edition. VG+: tight, clean, bright; just a hint of external dustiness.

Seller Inventory # MACPJWHEaTND

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Human Existence and Transcendence
• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2016
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 026810106X
• ISBN 13: 9780268101060
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

William C. Hackett’s English translation of Jean Wahl’s Existence humaine et transcendence (1944) brings back to life an all-but-forgotten book that provocatively explores the philosophical concept of transcendence. Based on what Emmanuel Levinas called “Wahl’s famous lecture” from 1937, Existence humaine et transcendence captured a watershed moment of European philosophy. Included in the book are Wahl's remarkable original lecture and the debate that ensued, with significant contributions by Gabriel Marcel and Nicolai Berdyaev, as well as letters submitted on the occasion by Heidegger, Levinas, Jaspers, and other famous figures from that era. Concerned above all with the ineradicable felt value of human experience by which any philosophical thesis is measured, Wahl makes a daring clarification of the concept of transcendence and explores its repercussions through a masterly appeal to many (often surprising) places within the entire history of Western thought. Apart from its intrinsic philosophical significance as a discussion of the concepts of being, the absolute, and transcendence, Wahl's work is valuable insofar as it became a focal point for a great many other European intellectuals. Hackett has provided an annotated introduction to orient readers to this influential work of twentieth-century French philosophy and to one of its key figures.

About the Authors

Jean Wahl (1888–1974) was professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne from 1936 to 1967. A number of his books have been translated into English, including A Short History of Existentialism and Philosophies of Existence.

William C. Hackett is Research Fellow and Lecturer in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne.