There is an unpleasant directness in all of Kaufmann's writing (and it is all worth reading). The three volumes of Discovering the Mind are a kind of survey ofthe German intellectual tradition, centered ostensibly on the polarity of Goethe and Kant. Kaufmann loves language, and every sentence is a clear, solid chart. As with all of Kaufmann's explorations, Nietzsche first marked the territory. But Kaufmann is always teaching me things, even when I hate him on every page.