Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The biographical approach in Karl Jaspers’ work: From philosophy of life to autobiography

  • Published:
Continental Philosophy Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study considers the origins and characteristics of Karl Jaspers’ biographical approach. Specifically, we analyse how this approach manifests itself in Jaspers’ work, namely, in his understanding of psychology, his psychology of worldviews, his views on the history of philosophy and his philosophical method. The biographical approach was a central strategy in Jaspers’ work as an appeal to life and was closely linked with how Jaspers understood both philosophy and his thought. For Jaspers, biography could restore mental unity and reveal the existence behind creativity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Berrios (1992), Janzarik (1998), Langenbach (1995), Rickman (1987), Walker (1993).

  2. Gordon (2000).

  3. Wallraff (1970), Samay (1971).

  4. Clark (2002), Wyatt (1982).

  5. Fusar-Poli (2013), Bormuth (2013).

  6. Saner (1970), Kirkbright (2004), Gens (2003).

  7. Jaspers (2016).

  8. Jaspers (1909).

  9. Jaspers (1963, p. 6).

  10. Jaspers (1910, p. 602).

  11. Chesterton (1986, pp. 218–219).

  12. See Vlasova (2014).

  13. Walker (1994, p. 118).

  14. Peach (2006, p. 59).

  15. Jablensky (2013, p. 240).

  16. Lefebre (1957, p. 478).

  17. Jaspers (1960, p. 44).

  18. Ibid., p. 36.

  19. Jaspers (1977).

  20. Jaspers (1963, p. 679).

  21. Ibid., p. 728.

  22. Jaspers (1979, p. 4).

  23. Ibid., p. 12.

  24. Ibid., p. 455.

  25. Ibid., p. 469.

  26. Jaspers (1911, p. 496).

  27. Jaspers (1957a, p. 94).

  28. Ibid., p. 12.

  29. Ibid., p. 74.

  30. Ibid., p. 14.

  31. Jaspers (1963, p. 773).

  32. Valéry (1947, p. 37).

  33. Saner (1967, p. 13).

  34. Jaspers (1957c, p. 39).

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid., p. 383.

  37. Jaspers (1979, p. 386).

  38. Jaspers (1957b).

  39. Jaspers (1967).

  40. Jaspers and Heidegger (2003).

  41. Arendt and Jaspers (1992).

  42. Jaspers and Bauer (1983).

  43. Jaspers (2006).

  44. Jaspers (1969).

  45. Jaspers (1979, p. 3).

  46. Jaspers (1977, p. 128).

  47. Jaspers (1951, p. 401).

References

  • Arendt, Hannah, and Jaspers, Karl. 1992. Correspondence, 1926–1969. Ed. Lotte Kohler and Hans Saner (trans. Robert and Rita Kimber). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

  • Berrios, German E. 1992. Phenomenology, psychopathology and Jaspers: A conceptual history. History of Psychiatry 3(11): 303–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bormuth, Matthias. 2013. Freedom and mystery: An intellectual history of Jaspers’ general psychopathology. Psychopathology 46(5): 281–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chesterton, Gilbert K. 1986. The secret of Father Brown. In Collected Works, ed. George Marlin, vol. VIII. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

  • Clark, Mark W. 2002. A prophet without honour: Karl Jaspers in Germany, 1945–48. Journal of Contemporary History 37(2): 197–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fusar-Poli, Paolo. 2013. One century of Allgemeine Psychopathologie (1913 to 2013) by Karl Jaspers. Schizophrenia Bulletin 39(2): 268–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gens, Jean-Claude. 2003. Karl Jaspers: Biographie. Paris: Bayard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, Ronald D. 2000. Karl Jaspers: Existential philosopher of dialog communication. Southern Communication Journal 65(2–3): 105–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jablensky, Assen. 2013. Karl Jaspers: Psychiatrist, philosopher, humanist. Schizophrenia Bulletin 39(2): 239–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janzarik, Werner. 1998. Jaspers, Kurt Schneider and the Heidelberg school of psychiatry (trans. Roberto Viviani and German E. Berrios). History of Psychiatry 9(34): 241–252.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1909. Heimweh und Verbrechen. Inaugural dissertation, Heidelberg. Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1910. Eifersuchtswahn. Ein Beitrag zur Frage: ‘Entwicklung einer Persönlichkeit’ oder „Prozeß“? Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie 1: 567–637.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1911. Zur Analyse der Trugwahrnehmungen (Leibhaftigkeit und Realitätsurteil). Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie 6: 460–535.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1951. Über meine Philosophie. In Rechenschaft und Ausblick; Reden und Aufsätze, 392–430. München: Piper.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1957a. Die grossen Philosophen, vol. 1. München: Piper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1957b. Philosophical autobiography. In The philosophy of Karl Jaspers, ed. Paul A. Schilpp, 3–94. New York: Tudor Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1957c. Reason and existence. Five lectures (trans. William Earle). New York: The Noonday Press.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1960. Psychologie der Weltanschauungen. Berlin: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1963. General psychopathology, vol. 1. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago. Originally published in 1959 as Allgemeine Psychopathologie, 7th edn.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1967. Schicksal und Wille, ed. Hans Saner. München: Piper.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1969. Provokationen. Gespräche und Interviews, ed. Hans Saner. München: Piper.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1977. Strindberg and Van Gogh: An attempt of a pathographic analysis with reference to parallel cases of Swedenborg and Hölderlin (trans. Oskar Grunow and David Woloshin). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 1979. Nietzsche. An introduction to the understanding of his philosophical activity (trans. Charles F. Wallraff, Frederick J. Schmitz). South Bend, IN: Regnery; Gateway.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 2006. Italienbriefe, 1902, ed. Suzanne Kirkbright. Heidelberg: Winter.

  • Jaspers, Karl. 2016. Korrespondenze, eds. Matthias Bormuth, Carsten Dutt, Dietrich von Engelhardt, Dominic Kaegi, Reiner Wiehl and Eike Wolgast. Göttingen: Wallstein. 3 Bde.

  • Jaspers, Karl, and Karl H. Bauer. 1983. Briefwechsel, 1945–1968, ed. Renato de Rosa. Berlin: Springer.

  • Jaspers, Karl, and Martin Heidegger. 2003. The Heidegger–Jaspers correspondence, 1920–1963, ed. Walter Biemel and Hans Saner (trans. Gary E. Aylesworth). Amherst, NY: Humanity Books.

  • Kirkbright, Susanne. 2004. Karl Jaspers: A biography (Navigations in Truth). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langenbach, Michael. 1995. Phenomenology, intentionality, and mental experience: Edmund Husserl’s Logische Untersuchungen and the first edition of Karl Jaspers’ Allgemeine Psychopathologie. History of Psychiatry 6(22): 209–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebre, Ludwig B. 1957. The psychology of Karl Jaspers. In The philosophy of Karl Jaspers, ed. Paul A. Schilpp, 476–498. New York: Tudor Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peach, Filiz. 2006. Phenomenology, history and historicity in Karl Jaspers’ philosophy. Analecta Husserliana 90: 45–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rickman, Hans P. 1987. The philosophical basis of psychiatry: Jaspers and Dilthey. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 17(2): 173–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samay, Sebastian. 1971. Reason revisited. The philosophy of Karl Jaspers . Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saner, Hans. 1967. Vorwort des Herausgebers. In Jaspers K. Schicksal und Wille, ed. Hans Saner, 7–14. München: Piper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saner, Hans. 1970. Karl Jaspers in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valéry, Paul. 1947. One view of descartes. In Thoughts of descartes, ed. The Living, 1–40. Philadelphia: Davic McKay Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vlasova, Olga A. 2014. Karl Jaspers’ phenomenology in the light of histological and X-ray metaphors, ed. Allan Beveridge. History of Psychiatry 25(1): 103–111.

  • Walker, Chris. 1993. Karl Jaspers as a Kantian psychopathologist, I. The philosophical origins of the concept of form and content. History of Psychiatry 4(14): 209–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, Chris. 1994. Karl Jaspers and Edmund Husserl 1: The perceived convergence. Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 1(2): 117–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallraff, Charles F. 1970. Karl Jaspers. An introduction to his philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyatt, John F. 1982. Karl Jaspers’ The Idea of the university: An existentialist argument for an institution concerned with freedom. Studies in Higher Education 7(1): 21–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the President of the Russian Federation for Young Scientists, Project MD–205.2014.6, “The Conceptual Analysis of Karl Jaspers’ Philosophy in the Light of the Biographical Approach.”

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Philosophy, Saint Petersburg State University, 7/9 Universitetskaya emb., St. Petersburg, Russia, 199034

    Olga A. Vlasova

Authors
  1. Olga A. Vlasova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olga A. Vlasova.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Vlasova, O.A. The biographical approach in Karl Jaspers’ work: From philosophy of life to autobiography. Cont Philos Rev 50, 479–492 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-016-9403-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-016-9403-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation