The Origin and Goal of History

The Origin and Goal of History
Author: Karl Jaspers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2021-03-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000357791

Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) was a German psychiatrist and philosopher and one of the most original European thinkers of the twentieth century. As a major exponent of existentialism in Germany, he had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry and philosophy. He was Hannah Arendt’s supervisor before her emigration to the United States in the 1930s and himself experienced the consequences of Nazi persecution. He was removed from his position at the University of Heidelberg in 1937, due to his wife being Jewish. Published in 1949, the year in which the Federal Republic of Germany was founded, The Origin and Goal of History is a vitally important book. It is renowned for Jaspers' theory of an 'Axial Age', running from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE. Jaspers argues that this period witnessed a remarkable flowering of new ways of thinking that appeared in Persia, India, China and the Greco-Roman world, in striking parallel development but without any obvious direct cultural contact between them. Jaspers identifies key thinkers from this age, including Confucius, Buddha, Zarathustra, Homer and Plato, who had a profound influence on the trajectory of future philosophies and religions. For Jaspers, crucially, it is here that we see the flowering of diverse philosophical beliefs such as scepticism, materialism, sophism, nihilism, and debates about good and evil, which taken together demonstrate human beings' shared ability to engage with universal, humanistic questions as opposed to those mired in nationality or authoritarianism. At a deeper level, The Origin and Goal of History provides a crucial philosophical framework for the liberal renewal of German intellectual life after 1945, and indeed of European intellectual life more widely, as a shattered continent attempted to find answers to what had happened in the preceding years. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Christopher Thornhill.

Basic Philosophical Writings

Basic Philosophical Writings
Author: Karl Jaspers
Publisher: Humanities Press International
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1994-09
Genre: Philosophy, Modern
ISBN: 9781573925297

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Way to Wisdom

Way to Wisdom
Author: Karl Jaspers
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2003-05-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780300163575

“An eloquent expression of a great hope that philosophy may again become an activity really relevant not only to the perennial problems of life and death but to the unusual configurations of such problems in our time.”—Julian N. Hartt, Yale Review “Original, sincere, cultivated, and stimulating.”—Philosophy One of the founders of existentialism, the eminent philosopher Karl Jaspers here presents for the general reader an introduction to philosophy. In doing so, he also offers a lucid summary of his own philosophical thought. In Jaspers’ view, the source of philosophy is to be found “in wonder, in doubt, in a sense of forsakenness,” and the philosophical quest is a process of continual change and self-discovery. In a new foreword to this edition, Richard M. Owsley provides a brief overview of Jaspers’ life and achievement.

Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers
Author: Charles Frederic Wallraff
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2015-03-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1400868610

The thought of the late Karl Jaspers, co-founder of the existentialist movement, has long exerted a powerful influence on world opinion. But, surprisingly, though translations of his writings have appeared in over 160 editions in 16 countries, his strictly philosophical work has hitherto been largely inaccessible to American audiences. Even where adequate English translations exist, the difficulties imposed by Jaspers' involved reasoning, intricate style, and ingenious neologisms are such that few unfamiliar with Continental philosophy can hope to acquire an understanding of his ideas on their own. To overcome these barriers, Professor Wallraff as mediator, interpreter, and translator provides a clear exposition of the main themes of Jaspers' Existenzphilosophie and prepares the reader for effective study of his writings. As the first book-length introduction to Jaspers' philosophy in English, this will be an indispensable companion for anyone desiring to take up the challenge of the "loving struggle" toward the truth that Jaspers invites us all to engage in. Originally published in 1970. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Philosophical Faith and the Future of Humanity

Philosophical Faith and the Future of Humanity
Author: Helmut Wautischer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2012-01-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9400722230

Karl Jaspers, who died in 1969, had a profound impact on 20th-century theology and philosophy. His central thesis called for, among other things, a de-centering of philosophy from its Eurocentric roots and a renewal of its dialogue with other traditions, especially Asian ones. This collection of essays includes unpublished work by Jaspers himself as well as testimonies to his life and career by colleagues, associates, and translators, some of who knew Jaspers personally. Readers will also find commentary and interpretation by researchers who have explored Jaspers’ work for decades, and a biographical account of Jaspers’ student Leonard Ehrlich, who handled much of Jaspers’ English translation. The book interrogates Jaspers’ conceptions of ‘philosophical faith’, his philosophy of communication, and the prospects for world philosophy in the future. Focusing on philosophical faith, it assesses Jaspers’ interpretations of key philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Rosenzweig, as well as examining his personal relationships with Bultmann and Heidegger. Contributors also look at Jaspers’ philosophies of religion and history, his hypothesis of the ‘axial age’ (Achsenzeit), and his contributions to metaphysics, periechontology, and economics. Finally, chapters cover Jaspers’ philosophy of communication and world history. The latter are informed by a burgeoning interest in Kantian ‘Freiheitphilosophie’ that influenced Jaspers, as well as concerns over the future of humanity. These concerns in part account for Jaspers’ growing popularity in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central/South America, and Asia. Also included are lucid clarifications of the difference between religious and philosophical faith, and the relevance of certainty, trust, and communication for a future of mankind. Trained as a psychiatrist, Jaspers practiced this profession before becoming a philosopher and thus had a keen insight into the workings of the human mind even as he challenged the philosophical establishment of his time. It is perhaps this depth to his background that adds to the contemporary relevance of his work.

Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers
Author: Dr Chris Thornhill
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1136454098

This book sets out a new reading of the much-neglected philosophy of Karl Jaspers. By questioning the common perception of Jaspers either as a proponent of irrationalist cultural philosophy or as an early, peripheral disciple of Martin Heidegger, it re-establishes him as a central figure in modern European philosophy. Giving particular consideration to his position in epistemological, metaphysical and political debate, the author argues that Jaspers's work deserves renewed consideration in a number of important discussions, particularly in hermeneutics, anthropological reflections on religion, the critique of idealism, and debates on the end of metaphysics.

Karl Jaspers’ Philosophy and Psychopathology

Karl Jaspers’ Philosophy and Psychopathology
Author: Thomas Fuchs
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2013-10-28
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1461488788

This book is based on a congress evaluating Jaspers' basic psychopathological concepts and their anthropological roots in light of modern research paradigms. It provides a definition of delusion, his concept of "limit situation" so much challenged by trauma research, and his methodological debate. We are approaching the anniversary of Jaspers seminal work General Psychopathology in 1913. The Centre of Psychosocial Medicine of the University with its Psychiatric Hospital where Jaspers wrote this influential volume as a 29 year old clinical assistant hosted a number of international experts familiar with his psychiatric and philosophical work. This fruitful interdisciplinary discussion seems particularly important in light of the renewed interest in Jaspers’ work, which will presumably increase towards the anniversary year 2013. This volume is unique in bringing together the knowledge of leading international scholars and combining three dimensions of investigation that are necessary to understand Jaspers in light of contemporary questions: history (section I), methodology (section II) and application (section III).