Paul Roubiczek – författare

Neither science nor a philosophy which aims at an entirely objective approach can deal with our personal experience. Value-judgements, for instance, presuppose freedom of choice and if responsible actions are to be based on them, man must be free to act according to his decisions. There is clearly an urgent need for a philosophy which can be lived; and it is as a philosophy of this kind that Existentialism exists. In this book Roubiczek confronts the prevalent 'objective' method with the 'subjective' and attempts a proper balance between the objective and the personal, the scientific and the ethical. Concentrating on the valuable aspects of Existentialism, he looks for positive results which can be philosophically justified and, at the same time, accepted as a way of life. This approach leads both towards and beyond Existentialism, so that the book is both an introduction to this school of philosophy and a critique of it.

In this 1969 text, Paul Roubiczek argues that in the age of science there is still a place for ethics and a need for the philosophical method. He attempts to prove this by examining the contributions of three disciplines - history, psychology and sociology - towards man's understanding of his moral involvement with society. By illustrating that all three leave gaps or lead to contradictions, he poses the question of whether it is possible to speak of an absolute morality, which he answers by confronting 'objective method' with 'subjective method'. Only the latter can lead to a full understanding of ethics. Later, Roubiczek goes on to examine different ethical teachings, in particular, Kant's theory of knowledge and ethics, and shows that acceptance of an unconditional ethical teaching requires a Kierkegaardian 'leap into the unknown'. However, he claims that, in the field of ethics, the leap turns out to be certainty.

First published in 1949, The Misinterpretation of Man traces the deeper roots of the ideas which found their most striking and disastrous expression in German National Socialism. It attempts to show the wrong turn which European thought took during the nineteenth century and to challenge its dangerous inheritance, so as to make room for the growth of different and better ideals. The author believes that Christian tradition and values are losing their hold over a great majority of nations leading to an erosion of magnanimity and forgiveness. This book will be of interest to students of philosophy and history.

First published in 1949, The Misinterpretation of Man traces the deeper roots of the ideas which found their most striking and disastrous expression in German National Socialism. It attempts to show the wrong turn which European thought took during the nineteenth century and to challenge its dangerous inheritance, so as to make room for the growth of different and better ideals. The author believes that Christian tradition and values are losing their hold over a great majority of nations leading to an erosion of magnanimity and forgiveness. This book will be of interest to students of philosophy and history.

First published in 1952, Thinking in Opposites insists on the need for a carefully thought-out, rather than a merely authoritarian, basis for faith; but also insists that an indispensable preliminary is to know the laws which govern and limit the scope of human thinking in relation to three areas: the external world as it is; the internal world of feeling; and the interrelation of each of these with the other. This book is not a technical work in philosophy and the theory of knowledge; but it deals with problems in those fields which have usually been handled only in technical language. Therefore, this is a book both for the expert and for the intelligent and thoughtful layman: for the man who has a sense of responsibility for what he believes, and who is able to justify his faith amid the chaos of our times.