Karl Jaspers famous phrases about life

The story is full of great figures with brilliant minds that managed to make significant contributions to science and philosophy. Without a doubt, one of the most important was Karl Jaspers, a psychiatrist and philosopher who talked about life, human being and knowledge. If you want to learn more about your thinking, in this article you will find 9 phrases of Karl Jaspers that summarize your vision.

In addition, the phrases of this thinker make us question things about our own life and the world around us. Therefore, it can be an interesting exercise to rethink issues that we usually give to discuss.

Content

• Who was Karl Jaspers?
• Karl Jaspers phrases about life
• More famous phrases of Karl Jaspers
  • References

Who was Karl Jaspers?

Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who was born on February 23, 1883. In 1909, Jaspers completed his studies in Medicine at the University of Oldemburg and began working in a psychiatric hospital at Heidelberg University. A few years later, in 1913, he obtained a teaching square at Heidelberg University to teach psychology.

Since then, Jaspers did not return to work as a clinician and dedicated himself to teaching until the rise of Adolf Hitler. When this happens, the psychiatrist is dismissed from his position because he opposed the regime and his wife was of Jewish origin. Once Hitler lost power, he regained his position as a professor and wrote several works about Germany and the war.

For that reason, He is considered one of the main referents of German reconstruction after war. Throughout his life he received several awards such as the Goethe Award and an Erasmus, as well as multiple Honoris Causa doctorates. He died in Switzerland on February 26, 1969 at the age of 86.

In addition to his contributions in the field of philosophy, Jaspers was the creator of the biographical research method. This is based on investigating the lives of patients and their own sensations regarding the symptoms they had.

Karl Jaspers phrases about life

Taking into account the above, we can see how Karl Jaspers is an essential figure in German philosophy. Through Karl Jaspers' phrases about various aspects of life and the world it is possible to better understand its vision.

It is the search for truth, not the possession of the truth that gives value to philosophy.

What gives meaning to reflection is the constant search for truth, but it is not in itself. If at any time we became the own of the absolute truth, the reflection would cease to have a goal. Thus, we see how the search is that allows things to have a meaning in life, but not them alone.

Even before the possible and total disaster, philosophy would continue to preserve the dignity of man in decline.

Philosophy is a discipline whose purpose is to reflect on the essence of things and its latest purposes. For this reason, Jaspers considered that even in moments of catastrophe, it would serve to protect human dignity. When people reflect and question their own course, they differ from animals that only follow instincts.

Fight against empty intellectualism.

This is one of the most significant Karl Jaspers phrases because it invites us to question the value of knowledge. It is normal that throughout life we ​​meet people who boast of being intellectual and knowing a lot. However, all the knowledge they possess lacks any utility and is only accumulated there to create an appearance.

Man is always more than what he knows about himself. It is not what it is once and forever, it is a process.

The existence of people is not static, rather is dynamic and is in a constant change process. Because of that, our life is much more that we believe it now of us, it is what we were and what we could be. While our identity has some stable attributes over time, we are never the same person we were yesterday.

Problems and conflicts can be the source of a defeat, a limitation for our potential, but they can also lead to greater understanding of the life and birth of a stronger unit over time.

Karl Jaspers phrases do not speak to us only about knowledge, but also personal growth. In this case, he tells us that problems can lead us to fall, but those chapters can also be opportunities. Sometimes, crises invite us to change our view on situations and make different decisions.

It is worth asking if there is no dark and blind will to make war in man.

Because of the socio -historical context in which he lived, it is not uncommon to see that this philosopher has war -related thoughts. Often, this type of conflict show a rather dark face of human nature and lead us to question us. Are we bad or good by birth? Do we make us dangerous or do we make it a decadent place?

Non -rational arguments will be a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.

Sometimes we wonder why some people prefer to choose in false conspiracies and ignore the truth, even if they show it. Among the phrases of Karl Jaspers that we can find, this is useful to explain the apparent lack of rationality of certain people. It is not that they cannot understand the truth or the rational, it is just that they do not want to understand it.

The crucial and following problem: Philosophy aspires to achieve the total truth that the world does not want.

Have you ever wondered how people can ignore current environmental disasters, but have time to watch movies? This is because the truth is not always pleasant to know and it is often easier to distract us with vanities. For Jaspers, this was the reason why many rejected philosophy.

Our questions and answers are determined in part by the historical tradition where we are.

More famous phrases of Karl Jaspers

There is no God. It is the cry of the increasingly noisy masses, and with the loss of God man loses his values.

Being a man is being free. The meaning of history is that we really become men.

Philosophizing is, and it is only, learn to die.

In philosophy the questions are more essential.

The war is, increasingly in a greater proportion, not a struggle, but an extermination of the technique.

It is worth asking if there is no dark and blind will to make war in man.

Man does not become aware of his being more than in limit situations.

When the language is used without true importance, it loses its purpose as a means of communication and becomes an end in itself.

The master of love teaches fight. The lifeless isolation teacher teaches peace.

"There is no God," shout the increasingly strong masses; And with the loss of God, man loses his sense of values; It is, so to speak, massacred because it feels despicable.

Who wants to influence the masses must resort to the art of advertising. The clamor of the fanfarería is today a requirement even for an intellectual movement.

The reason is like an open secret that can be known by anyone at any time.

When the language is used without true importance, it loses its purpose as a means of communication and becomes an end of itself.

Philosophizing is and is just learning to die.

In philosophy the questions are more essential.

Being a man is being free. The meaning of history is that we really become men.

Problems and conflicts can be the source of a defeat, a limitation for our potential, but they can also lead to greater understanding of the life and birth of a stronger unit over time.

When the language is used without true importance, it loses its purpose as a means of communication and becomes an end of itself.

The study of the law left me dissatisfied, because I do not know the aspects of the life to which it serves. I realized only complex mental juggers with fictions that do not interest me.

The great philosophers and the great works are the rules for the selection of what is essential. Everything we do in the study of the history of philosophy ultimately serves its best understanding.

If philosophy is practical, a requirement to know the way in which history is going to be studied: a theoretical attitude towards it becomes only the appropriation of life of the contents of the texts.

Philosophy as a practice does not mean that its restriction to utility or application, that is, for what is the use of soul and produces soul.

At the present time, the security of coherent philosophy is lost, which existed from Parmenides to Hegel.

As a universal history of philosophy, the history of philosophy must become a great unity.

Philosophy can only be approached with the most concrete understanding.

The history of philosophy is not, like the history of science, to be studied with the intellect. What is receptive in us and the one that affects us of history is the reality of the human being, unfolding in his thoughts.

Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I did the work philosophy of my life.

Even scientific knowledge, if there is something to it, it is not a random observation of random objects, since the critical objectivity of meaningful knowledge is achieved as practice only philosophically in inner action.

I started the study of medicine, driven by the desire for knowledge of the facts and man. The resolution to do the disciplined work tied to a laboratory and clinic for a long time to come.

He is impalpable, illusory, transitory: "He's here, he's there, he has left"; A nullity that, however, can give the multitude of power to lift or destroy.

Problems and conflicts can be the source of a defeat, a limitation for our potential, but they can also lead to greater understanding of the life and birth of a stronger unit over time.

The historical and social context influences the acquisition of knowledge about the world and people. Today, there are scientific works that are considered racist or misogynist because they are based on ancient visions of the world. Therefore, It is essential to observe how the environment influences the questions we ask ourselves and how we answer them.

In conclusion, Karl Jaspers phrases allow us to understand why it was one of the most important modern thinkers. Even today, the biographical method remains a way of investigating very popular and its philosophical questions remain under exploration.

References

• Jaspers, k., & Gaos, J. (1953). Philosophy from the point of view of existence. Mexico: Economic Culture Fund.
• Salamun, k. (2014). Karl Jaspers. In Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Religion (pp. 119-132). Routledge.