Karl Jaspers Quotes on Knowledge
Karl Jaspers (1883–1969), the German psychiatrist-philosopher whose three-volume Philosophy (1932), Reason and Existenz (1935), and the late Origin and Goal of History (1949) gave twentieth-century continental thought one of its most ambitious systematic philosophical anthropologies, defended a tripartite distinction among orientation in the world (the domain of scientific cognition), elucidation of Existenz (the philosophical articulation of the conditions of authentic selfhood), and metaphysical reading of the ciphers of transcendence. The framework treats limit-situations — death, suffering, struggle, guilt — as the cognitive thresholds at which scientific objectification fails and Existenz discloses itself as the ground from which philosophical inquiry properly proceeds.
Quotes
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Attributed to Karl Jaspers:
“Philosophy is a way of life, not a set of doctrines to be memorised.”
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Attributed to Karl Jaspers:
“Whoever offers himself as an arbiter of aesthetic matters takes a great risk.”
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“The Great Philosophers (1962)”
I approach the presentation of Kierkegaard with some trepidation. Next to Nietzsche , or rather, prior to Nietzsche, I consider him to be the most important thinker of our post- Kantian age. With Goethe and Hegel , an epoch had reached its conclusion, and our prevalent way of thinking — that is, the positivistic , natural-scientific one — cannot really be considered as philosophy . -
“The Greek word for philosopher ( philosophos ) connotes a distinction from sophos . It signifies the lover of wisdom (knowledge) as distinguished from him who considers himself wise in the possession of knowledge . This meaning of the word still endures: the essence of philosophy is not the possession of the truth but the search for truth. … Philosophy means to be on the way. Its questions are more essential than its answers , and every answer becomes a new question.”
Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy (1951) as translated by Ralph Mannheim , Ch. 1, What is Philosophy?, p. 12 | Variant translation: It is the search for the truth , not possession of the truth which is the way of philosophy. Its questions are more relevant than its answers, and every answer becomes a new question. -
“The Greek word for philosopher ( philosophos ) connotes a distinction from sophos . It signifies the lover of wisdom (knowledge) as distinguished from him who considers himself wise in the possession of knowledge . This meaning of the word still endures: the essence of philosophy is not the possession of the truth but the search for truth. … Philosophy means to be on the way. Its questions are mor”
Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy (1951) as translated by Ralph Mannheim , Ch. 1, What is Philosophy?, p. 12 -
“Even the most elevated psychological understanding is not a loving understanding.”
Psychology of World Views(1919)