Karl Jaspers
In limit situations like death, guilt and suffering we become aware of ourselves and of something beyond everything we can know.
Placement
Philosophy of existence: limit situations open human beings to transcendence; coined the concept of the Axial Age.
Key ideas
- Limit situations
- Axial Age
- Illumination of existence
Students: Hannah Arendt
Influence
Influenced by 8
Confucius
influenced by
Jaspers counted Confucius among the thinkers of his “Axial Age” (1949) and, with Socrates, Buddha and Jesus, among the four “paradigmatic individuals” of The Great Philosophers (1957). K. Jaspers, Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (1949), ch. 1; Die großen Philosophen I (1957), “Die maßgebenden Menschen”
Evidence: AI draft
Confucius › traditionally 551–479 BCE
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
influenced by
Jaspers presented the Buddha, with Socrates, Confucius and Jesus, as one of the four “paradigmatic individuals” in The Great Philosophers (1957). K. Jaspers, Die großen Philosophen I (1957), “Die maßgebenden Menschen”
Evidence: AI draft
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) › c. 480–400 BCE · conventionally dated 563–483 BCE
Immanuel Kant
influenced by ✓
Jaspers appended a study of Kant’s doctrine of ideas to his Psychology of Worldviews (1919) and took Kant’s limits of knowledge as the frame of his Philosophy (1932). K. Jaspers, Psychologie der Weltanschauungen (1919), appendix “Kants Ideenlehre”; Philosophie (1932); SEP “Karl Jaspers”
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Søren Kierkegaard
influenced by ✓
Jaspers took his concept of Existenz from Kierkegaard and, in Reason and Existenz (1935), presented Kierkegaard and Nietzsche as the thinkers who opened the modern question of existence. K. Jaspers, Vernunft und Existenz (1935); Philosophie (1932); SEP “Karl Jaspers”
Søren Kierkegaard › 1813–1855
Friedrich Nietzsche
influenced by
In Nietzsche: An Introduction to the Understanding of His Philosophical Activity (1936) Jaspers read Nietzsche as a thinker of Existenz whose contradictions must be thought through, not resolved. K. Jaspers, Nietzsche. Einführung in das Verständnis seines Philosophierens (1936); SEP “Karl Jaspers”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900
Max Weber
influenced by ✓
Jaspers used Weber’s ideal types in Psychology of Worldviews (1919) and honoured him as the model of philosophical existence (address, 1920; Max Weber, 1932). K. Jaspers, Psychologie der Weltanschauungen (1919); Max Weber. Rede bei der Trauerfeier (1920); Max Weber. Deutsches Wesen im politischen Denken, im Forschen und Philosophieren (1932); SEP “Karl Jaspers”
Max Weber › 1864–1920
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Laozi
influenced by
In The Great Philosophers (1957) Jaspers treated Laozi, with Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plotinus, Spinoza and Nagarjuna, among the metaphysicians whose thinking springs from the origin. K. Jaspers, Die großen Philosophen I (1957), “Aus dem Ursprung denkende Metaphysiker”
Evidence: AI draft
Laozi › legendary figure
Nagarjuna
influenced by
Jaspers devoted a chapter of The Great Philosophers (1957) to Nagarjuna, alongside Laozi among the metaphysicians whose thinking springs from the origin. K. Jaspers, Die großen Philosophen I (1957), “Aus dem Ursprung denkende Metaphysiker”
Evidence: AI draft
Nagarjuna › c. 150–250
Influenced 3
Hannah Arendt taught
taught ✓
Arendt took her doctorate under Jaspers in Heidelberg in 1928 with Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin (printed 1929); their correspondence continued until his death. H. Arendt & K. Jaspers, Briefwechsel 1926–1969 (1985); E. Young-Bruehl, Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World (1982)
Hannah Arendt › 1906–1975
Paul Ricœur
influenced
In captivity Ricœur studied Jaspers’s philosophy of existence with Mikel Dufrenne (Karl Jaspers et la philosophie de l’existence, 1947) and contrasted his paradox with Marcel’s mystery (1948). M. Dufrenne and P. Ricœur, Karl Jaspers et la philosophie de l’existence (1947); P. Ricœur, Gabriel Marcel et Karl Jaspers. Philosophie du mystère et philosophie du paradoxe (1948); SEP “Paul Ricoeur”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Paul Ricœur › 1913–2005
Frantz Fanon
influenced
Fanon cited Jaspers’ idea of a metaphysical guilt from The Question of German Guilt (1946) – a solidarity that makes everyone co-responsible for every wrong in the world – to hold Europe answerable for colonial racism; the passage in Black Skin, White Masks (1952) has not been checked here. F. Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs (1952); K. Jaspers, Die Schuldfrage (1946; French La culpabilité allemande, 1948)
Evidence: AI draft
Frantz Fanon › 1925–1961
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Albert Camus
criticised by
Camus counted Jaspers among the ‘philosophical suicides’: having recognised the failure of reason, Jaspers leaps to transcendence instead of holding to the absurd (The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942). A. Camus, Le Mythe de Sisyphe (1942), “Le suicide philosophique”
Evidence: AI draft
Albert Camus › 1913–1960
Works
Limit situations – a founding document of existential philosophy.
- 1932Philosophy
World orientation, illumination of existence, metaphysics.
The Axial Age: Confucius, the Buddha, the prophets, the philosophers.
Position
Jaspers is a founder of German existential philosophy. Scientific knowledge orients us in the world, but it cannot tell us who we are. Our authentic self, Existenz, comes to light in “limit situations” – death, suffering, struggle, guilt – which we cannot escape and in which the familiar fails. There we can become aware of transcendence, which is never an object but can be read in “ciphers”. Philosophy is therefore not a doctrine but an illumination of existence and an appeal to freedom and communication. In his work on history he coined the idea of an Axial Age, when around 500 BCE the great spiritual traditions emerged in China, India, Persia, Israel and Greece.
Life & context
Jaspers began as a psychiatrist in Heidelberg, where his General Psychopathology became a standard work, then turned to philosophy and became a professor there. Married to Gertrud Mayer, who was Jewish, he was dismissed by the Nazis in 1937. After the war he addressed German guilt and in 1948 moved to Basel. He corresponded for decades with Hannah Arendt and Heidegger.
Further main works
- General Psychopathology (1913)
- The Question of German Guilt (1946)
Appears in
- Journey ‘Thinking after Auschwitz’ · Stop 1 of 10
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