My Work

Abstract

Hartman died unexpectedly, at the relatively young age of 63, with much of his best work still unfinished and unpublished. Diligent students of his published works can piece together from them some of the strands of his ever-evolving thoughts, but many gaps in our understanding of this man’s work remain. In some of his correspondence and his published works, Hartman refers to his intention of writing a summary—a magnum opus—of his life’s work, but such a work was never completed or published. During an archival research visit to the Hartman papers in the summer of 2018, a team of researchers came upon an unfinished manuscript entitled simply, “My Work.” We believe this may have been a first draft of just such a magnum opus. Parts of what Hartman wrote here will sound familiar to readers of his autobiography Freedom to Live or of The Structure of Value. The editor has added only section headings to enhance readability. This manuscript is clearly incomplete; it ends abruptly, with only a hint of what was intended to follow. This unfinished manuscript is offered here as a way, using Hartman’s own words, to connect the dots between the major stages of his ever-developing thoughts.