Human existence and transcendence / Jean Wahl ; translated and edited by William C. Hackett, with Jeffrey Hanson ; foreword by Kevin Hart.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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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. -- Provided by publisher.

Cover ; HUMAN EXISTENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE; Title; Copyright; CONTENTS; Foreword; Introduction: Jean Wahl, A Human Existence and Transcendence(s); HUMAN EXISTENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE; Preface; On Existence; On the Idea of Transcendence; Subjectivity and Transcendence; On the Idea of Being; On the Absolute; On Space and Time; On Descartes; Poetry and Metaphysics; Magic and Romanticism: Notes on Novalis and Blake; Novalis and the Principle of Contradiction; From "Wahl's Famous Lecture" (Meeting of the Société française de philosophie, December 4, 1937).

Introductory Note and Dramatis Personae of December 4, 1937Discussion; Letters; Appendix 1. Selected List of Philosophers, Artists, and Poets in Wahl's Text; Appendix 2. Books by Jean Wahl in English.

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