Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph
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- A philosopher with esprit ...
- A philosopher with esprit ...
- Refreshing
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The Waste Books (New York Review Books Classics)
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0940322501
Release Date: 2000-09-30 |
Book Description
German scientist and man of letters Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was an 18th-century polymath: an experimental physicist, an astronomer, a mathematician, a practicing critic both of art and literature. He is most celebrated, however, for the casual notes and aphorisms that he collected in what he called his Waste Books. With unflagging intelligence and encyclopedic curiosity, Lichtenberg wittily deflates the pretensions of learning and society, examines a range of philosophical questions, and tracks his own thoughts down hidden pathways to disconcerting and sometimes hilarious conclusions.
Lichtenberg's Waste Books have been greatly admired by writers as very different as Tolstoy, Einstein, and Andre Breton, while Nietzsche and Wittgenstein acknowledged them as a significant inspiration for their own radical work in philosophy. The record of a brilliant and subtle mind in action, The Waste Books are above all a powerful testament to the necessity, and pleasure, of unfettered thought.
Customer Reviews:
A philosopher with esprit ..........2005-08-20
"The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery." This is a cynic notation considering the fate of the Red Indians. "A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments..." sounds like George W. Bush - but is written down by Professor (not Condoleezza Rice), by Professor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742-1799. He has been a philosopher, but his writing-style was more comfortable to any reader, than the work of the other German genius of that time: Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Lichtenberg loved the ideas of the French Enlightenment and he tried to explain the ideas of empiric science with humor. He was critical against Christian dogmatics. He once shortly noted: "An Amen face." Or longer: "Nothing offers me such clear proof of how things stand in the world of learning than the circumstance that Spinoza was for so long regarded as an evil, worthless person and his opinions as dangerous." Lichtenberg has been a philosopher - but writing with esprit. If you can tolerate his bile, buy his book: "Who has two pairs of trousers turn one of them into cash and purchase this book." But bear in mind: "A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it, - an apostle is unlikely to look out!"
A philosopher with esprit ..........2005-08-20
"The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery." This is a cynic notation considering the fate of the Red Indians. "A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments..." sounds like George W. Bush - but is written down by Professor (not Condoleezza Rice), by Professor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742-1799. He has been a philosopher, but his writing-style was more comfortable to any reader, than the work of the other German genius of that time: Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Lichtenberg loved the ideas of the French Enlightenment and he tried to explain the ideas of empiric science with humor. He was critical against Christian dogmatics. He once shortly noted: "An Amen face." Or longer: "Nothing offers me such clear proof of how things stand in the world of learning than the circumstance that Spinoza was for so long regarded as an evil, worthless person and his opinions as dangerous." Lichtenberg has been a philosopher - but writing with esprit. If you can tolerate his bile, buy his book: "Who has two pairs of trousers turn one of them into cash and purchase this book." But bear in mind: "A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it, - an apostle is unlikely to look out!"
Refreshing.......2003-10-12
Lichtenberg truly observes and thinks, forgive my cliched phrase, with a child's wonder. Thinking and Observing are, for him, downright entertainment not, as for most of us, labour-work. Even such strict critics as Schopenhauer and Nietszche have to off-cap to this unusual man.
Readers who have German can consult the 4-vol. "Schriften und Briefe" edited by Wolfgang Promies (with 2 useful vol.s of "Kommentar"; Hanser Verlag, 1967).
There seems to me a drawback (a strange one) of this translation: Mr. Hollingdale sometimes omits some part of an aphorism without obvious reasons. Just take the first aphorism as an example: the translation reads:'the great artifice of regarding small deviations from the truch as being the truth itself is at the same time the foundation of wit...'; while the original is 'Der grosse Kunstgriff, kleine Abweichungen von der Wahrheit fur die Wahrheit selbst zu halten, worauf die ganze Differentialrechnung gebaut ist, ist auch zugleich der Grund unserer witzigen Gedanken...'; why the phrase 'worauf die ganze Differentialrechnung gebaut ist' is not translated? It is quite inexplicable to me. And there are instances where only one sentence is rendered when the aphorism comprises two or three, again, with no obvious reasons.
All the same, this edition is a valuable one, supplementing the "Lichtenberg Reader" translated, edited and introduced by Franz H. Mautner and Henry Hatfield.
I guess any lover of Lichtenberg would oft murmur to him/herself: 'May this wonderful man be better know!' Amen.
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Lichtenberg in England
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Manufacturer: Harrassowitz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 3447018828 |
Product Description
18th Century contemporary commentaries by Lichtenberg, German physics professor, appearing 1st in German literary journal Gottinger Taschenkalender on celebrated engravings about England by Hogarth, translated by Innes & Gustav Herdan.
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Mit Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Manufacturer: Arkana Steidl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
German
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ASIN: 3882430834 |
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Aphorismen.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg , and Max. Rychner
Manufacturer: Manesse-Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 3717512544 |
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APHORISMEN, BRIEFE UND SCHRIFTEN.
Georg Christoph. Lichtenberg
Manufacturer: Scienta-Verlag Zurich
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LRA2EG |
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Aforismos
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Manufacturer: Longseller
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Personal Transformation
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Transformación Personal
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ASIN: 987948102X |
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Pfennigs- Wahrheiten.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg , and Rainer. Baasner
Manufacturer: Dtv
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 3423126817 |
Authors:
- Lichtenberg, Jacqueline
- Lieber, Fritz
- Liebler, M. L.
- Lightman, Alan
- Lima, Frank
- Lindquist, Mark
- Lins, Osman
- Lipton, Douglas
- Lisle, Holly
- Livius Andronicus
Authors
Authors