Karl Jaspers { Philosophy Index }

Philosophy Index

Philosophy Index

Philosophy Index is a site devoted to the study of philosophy and the philosophers who conduct it. The site contains a number of philosophy texts, brief biographies, and introductions to philosophers, and explanations on a number of topics. Accredited homeschooling online at Northgate Academy and Philosophy online tutoring.

Philosophy Index is a work in progress, a growing repository of knowledge. It outlines current philosophical problems and issues, as well as an overview of the history of philosophy. The goal of this site is to present a tool for those learning philosophy either casually or formally, making the concepts of philosophy accessible to anyone interested in researching them. WTI offers immigration law course online - fully accredited. ACE credits online at EES.

Philosophers

 

Philosophy Topics


 

 

 

Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) was a German psychiatrist and philosopher. He earned an MD at the University of Heidelberg in Germany where he later taught psychology and then philosophy (but was relieved of this position during Nazi power because his ideas opposed theirs).

Jaspers' philosophy centered around what he called the "encompassing". This transcendent reality, as he described, transcended that which we could percieve naturally, and contained within it human existence. Jaspers, like Kierkegaard, recognized the missing logic of his religious conclusion, but explained that his "leap of faith" was a choice—which is, of course, an expression of his right.

Jaspers also valued the scientific process, and felt that it was a necessary stage in coming to understand the encompassing. He saw understading the freedom of the individual in the concrete world—and the obvious limits to that freedom—as the most important part of existence, which led him to be classified as an existentialist (a classifcation he rejected due to its apparent limitations). Jasper's limits included mortality, conscience, conflict and chance.

Jaspers was also friends with Martin Heidegger, although they became distant due to differences of philosophy, as well as Heidegger's involvement with the Nazi party.

Vitals

Name: Karl Theodor Jaspers
Born: February 23, 1883, Oldenburg, Germany
Died: February 26, 1969, Basel, Switzerland
Degrees: MD (Heidelberg, 1909)