Zitate von Karl Jaspers

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Karl Jaspers

Geburtstag: 23. Februar 1883
Todesdatum: 26. Februar 1969
Andere Namen: Karl Theodor Jaspers

Karl Theodor Jaspers war ein deutscher Psychiater und Philosoph von internationaler Bedeutung. Er lehrte u. a. in Basel und wurde 1967 Schweizer Staatsbürger.

Jaspers gilt als herausragender Vertreter der Existenzphilosophie, die er vom Existentialismus Jean-Paul Sartres strikt unterschied. Er war zunächst Lehrer und anschließend lebenslanger Freund von Hannah Arendt, mit der ihn auch ein jahrzehntelanger Briefwechsel verband. Auch mit Martin Heidegger stand er in Briefwechsel, der – in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus unterbrochen – nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nur noch spärlich war. Mit Max Weber, Hans Walter Gruhle und Kurt Schneider verband ihn eine langjährige Freundschaft. Enge Kontakte unterhielt er auch zu Alfred Weber, Eberhard Gothein und Gustav Radbruch. Jaspers gehörte zum Gesprächskreis um Marianne Weber. Nach 1945 war er maßgeblich an der Neugründung der Universität Heidelberg beteiligt und trat dadurch in eine lebenslange Beziehung mit deren erstem Rektor nach der Wiedereröffnung, Karl Heinrich Bauer.

Als Arzt hat Jaspers grundlegend zur wissenschaftlichen Entwicklung der Psychiatrie beigetragen. Sein philosophisches Werk wirkt insbesondere in den Bereichen der Religionsphilosophie, Geschichtsphilosophie und der Interkulturellen Philosophie. Mit seinen einführenden Schriften zur Philosophie, aber auch mit seinen Schriften zu politischen Fragen wie zur Atombombe, zur Demokratieentwicklung in Deutschland und zur Wiedervereinigung hat er hohe Auflagen erreicht und ist einem breiteren Publikum bekannt geworden.

Zitate Karl Jaspers

„Der Augenblick ist die einzige Realität, die Realität überhaupt im seelischen Leben. Der gelebte Augenblick ist das Letzte, Blutwarme, Unmittelbare, Lebendige, das leibhaftig Gegenwärtige, die Totalität des Realen, das allein Konkrete. Statt von der Gegenwart sich in Vergangenheit und Zukunft zu verlieren, findet der Mensch Existenz und Absolutes zuletzt nur im Augenblick. Vergangenheit und Zukunft sind dunkle, ungewisse Abgründe, sind die endlose Zeit, während der Augenblick die Aufhebung der Zeit, die Gegenwart des Ewigen sein kann.“

— Karl Jaspers
Psychologie Der Weltanschauungen

Zeit, Über Menschen, Zukunft, Vergangenheit

„Alles Schöpferische ist unvoraussehbar.“

— Karl Jaspers
Die Atombombe und die Zukunft des Menschen

„Auch das gesteigertste psychologische Verstehen ist kein liebendes Verstehen.“

— Karl Jaspers
Psychology of World Views (1919)

Verstehen

„Das Bild vom Menschen, das wir für wahr halten, wird selber ein Faktor unseres Lebens. Er entscheidet über die Weisen unseres Umgangs mit uns selbst und mit dem Mitmenschen, über Lebensbestimmung und Wahl der Aufgaben.“

— Karl Jaspers
Der philosophische Glaube

Über Leben, Über Menschen

„Der Mensch steht heute vor der Alternative: Untergang des Menschen oder Wandlung des Menschen.“

— Karl Jaspers
Philosophie und Welt

Über Menschen

„Der Lehrer der Liebe lehrt den Kampf, der Lehrer der lieblosen Isolierung von aller Welt aber die Ruhe.“

— Karl Jaspers
Psychology of World Views (1919)

Über die Welt, Über Liebe, Über Liebe

„Macht hat Legitimität nur im Dienst der Vernunft. Allein von hier bezieht sie ihren Sinn. An sich ist sie böse.“

— Karl Jaspers
Wohin treibt die Bundesrepublik?

Sinn, Böse

„In der Freiheit ist zwar das Verderben groß, das völlige Verderben möglich. Ohne Freiheit aber ist das Verderben gewiß.“

— Karl Jaspers
Kleine Schule des Philosophischen Denkens, 1965

Freiheit

„Heutige Kunst: Ihr Wesensausdruck ist Chaos bei äußerem Können.“

— Karl Jaspers
Die geistige Situation der Zeit

Über Kunst

„Der Massenmensch hat wenig Zeit, lebt kein Leben aus einem Ganzen, will nicht mehr die Vorbereitung und Anstrengung ohne den konkreten Zweck, der sie in Nutzen umsetzt; er will nicht warten und reifen lassen; alles muß sogleich gegenwärtige Befriedigung sein; Geistiges ist zu den jeweils augenblicklichen Vergnügungen geworden. Daher ist der Essay die geeignete Literaturform für alles, tritt die Zeitung an die Stelle des Buches… Man liest schnell.“

— Karl Jaspers
Man in the Modern Age (1933)

Anstrengung, Über Bücher, Zeit, Warten

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„Der biblisch fundierte Absolutheitsanspruch der Kirchen steht ständig auf dem Sprung, die Scheiterhaufen für Ketzer zu entflammen.“

— Karl Jaspers
Der philosophische Glaube, 9. Auflage, 1988, S. 73

Über Religion

„"There is no God," cry the masses more and more vociferously; and with the loss of God man loses his sense of values — is, as it were, massacred because he feels himself of no account.“

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— Karl Jaspers
Man in the Modern Age (1933)

„The 'public' is a phantom, the phantom of an opinion supposed to exist in a vast number of persons who have no effective interrelation and though the opinion is not effectively present in the units.“

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— Karl Jaspers
Man in the Modern Age (1933), Context: The 'public' is a phantom, the phantom of an opinion supposed to exist in a vast number of persons who have no effective interrelation and though the opinion is not effectively present in the units. Such an opinion is spoken of as 'public opinion,' a fiction which is appealed to by individuals and by groups as supporting their special views. It is impalpable, illusory, transient; "'tis here, 'tis there, 'tis gone"; a nullity which can nevertheless for a moment endow the multitude with power to uplift or destroy.

„The masses are our masters; and for every one who looks facts in the face his existence has become dependent on them, so that the thought of them must control his doings, his cares, and his duties.“

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— Karl Jaspers
Man in the Modern Age (1933), Context: The masses are our masters; and for every one who looks facts in the face his existence has become dependent on them, so that the thought of them must control his doings, his cares, and his duties. Even an articulated mass always tends to become unspiritual and inhuman. It is life without existence, superstitions without faith. It may stamp all flat; it is disinclined to tolerate independence and greatness, but prone to constrain people to become as automatic as ants.<!-- p. 43

„Our own power of generation lies in the rebirth of what has been handed down to us. If we do not wish to slip back, nothing must be forgotten; but if philosophising is to be genuine our thoughts must arise from our own source. Hence all appropriation of tradition proceeds from the intentness of our own life. The more determinedly I exist, as myself, within the conditions of the time, the more clearly I shall hear the language of the past, the nearer I shall feel the glow of its life.“

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— Karl Jaspers
On My Philosopy (1941), Context: Our questions and answers are in part determined by the historical tradition in which we find ourselves. We apprehend truth from our own source within the historical tradition. The content of our truth depends upon our appropriating the historical foundation. Our own power of generation lies in the rebirth of what has been handed down to us. If we do not wish to slip back, nothing must be forgotten; but if philosophising is to be genuine our thoughts must arise from our own source. Hence all appropriation of tradition proceeds from the intentness of our own life. The more determinedly I exist, as myself, within the conditions of the time, the more clearly I shall hear the language of the past, the nearer I shall feel the glow of its life.

„When the titanic apparatus of the mass-order has been consolidated, the individual has to serve it, and must from time to time combine with his fellows in order to renovate it. If he wants to make his livelihood by intellectual activity, he will find it very difficult to do this except by satisfying the needs of the many. He must give currency to something that will please the crowd.“

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— Karl Jaspers
Man in the Modern Age (1933), Context: When the titanic apparatus of the mass-order has been consolidated, the individual has to serve it, and must from time to time combine with his fellows in order to renovate it. If he wants to make his livelihood by intellectual activity, he will find it very difficult to do this except by satisfying the needs of the many. He must give currency to something that will please the crowd. They seek satisfaction in the pleasures of the table, eroticism, self-assertion; they find no joy in life if one of these gratifications be curtailed. They also desire some means of self-knowledge. They desire to be led in such as way that they can fancy themselves leaders. Without wishing to be free, they would fain be accounted free. One who would please their taste must produce what is really average and commonplace, though not frankly styled such; must glorify or at least justify something as universally human. Whatever is beyond their understanding is uncongenial to them. One who would influence the masses must have recourse to the art of advertisement. The clamour of puffery is to-day requisite even for an intellectual movement. The days of quiet and unpretentious activity seem over and done with. You must keep yourself in the public eye, give lectures, make speeches, arouse a sensation. Yet the mass-apparatus lacks true greatness of representation, lacks solemnity. <!-- pp. 43 - 44

„Our questions and answers are in part determined by the historical tradition in which we find ourselves.“

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„It may stamp all flat; it is disinclined to tolerate independence and greatness, but prone to constrain people to become as automatic as ants.“

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„On the other hand, it may arise by the working of a fate to us still inscrutable which, out of ruin, will disclose a way towards the development of a new human being. To will the discovery of this way would be blind impotence, but those who do not wish to deceive themselves will be prepared for the possibility.“

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— Karl Jaspers
Man in the Modern Age (1933), Context: The vicious circle of dread of war which leads the nations to arm themselves for self-protection, with the result that bloated armaments ultimately lead to the war which they were intended to avert, can be broken in either of two conceivable ways. There might arise a unique world power, brought into being by the unification of all those now in possession of weapons, and equipped with the capacity to forbid the lesser and unarmed nations to make war. On the other hand, it may arise by the working of a fate to us still inscrutable which, out of ruin, will disclose a way towards the development of a new human being. To will the discovery of this way would be blind impotence, but those who do not wish to deceive themselves will be prepared for the possibility.<!-- p. 97

„Man is always something more than what he knows of himself. He is not what he is simply once and for all, but is a process…“

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— Karl Jaspers
Man in the Modern Age (1933), Context: Man is always something more than what he knows of himself. He is not what he is simply once and for all, but is a process... <!-- p. 146