Jaspers, Karl (1883-1969), was a leading German existentialist philosopher. He held that philosophy is not a set of doctrines, but an activity through which individuals can become aware of the nature of their own existence. Jaspers wrote many books about the great philosophers of the past. However, he was not primarily interested in the philosophers’ conclusions, because he held that in philosophy all content and all conclusions are unimportant. Jaspers urged the study of other philosophers as a way to disturb and stimulate us so profoundly that we would be compelled to engage in the activity of philosophizing. See Existentialism .
Jaspers said that people constantly try to transcend their limitations through science, religion, and philosophy, but they experience failure or “shipwreck.” Jaspers believed that people learn most about themselves in “limit situations” such as death, guilt, and failure. These situations reveal to people what their limitations are. The most complete statement of Jaspers’ views appears in Philosophy (1932). He presented less complicated versions in The Perennial Scope of Philosophy (1948) and The Way to Wisdom (1949).
Jaspers was born in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony. He began teaching psychiatry at the University of Heidelberg in 1913, and became professor of philosophy at the university in 1921. In 1948, he became professor of philosophy at the University of Basel, in Switzerland.
