Abstract
Karl Jaspers’ concept of philosophical faith is a notion he developed in the latter part of his career, and it has been most carefully expressed in the work of Leonard H. Ehrlich. Jaspers struggled with the perennial dichotomy between reason and faith, and, in the face of modern perils, provided a rationale, and—more importantly—an example, of how one might live both. He does so with a sympathetic critique of science, and with an intuitive awareness of both the power of reason and the demands of emotion. Jaspers tried to combine Kant, Kierkegaard, and science as he developed his own belief system about existence.
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Notes
- 1.
See Leonard Ehrlich, Karl Jaspers: Philosophy as Faith (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1975) [Henceforth cited as PF]; also Edith Ehrlich, Leonard H. Ehrlich, et al., eds. Karl Jaspers: Basic Philosophical Writings (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1994). [Henceforth cited as BPW]
- 2.
Henry L. Mencken, Treatise on the Gods (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, (1930) 1997).
- 3.
Daniel C. Dennett, Breaking the Spell (New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2006).
- 4.
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2008).
- 5.
William Osler, Aequanimitas (Philadelphia, PA: The Blakiston Company, 1948).
- 6.
Raymond Aron, Memoirs (New York, NY: Holmes and Meier, 1990).
- 7.
Stephen Jay Gould, Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2002).
- 8.
M. Ghazali, The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Salt Lake City, UT: Brigham Young University, 2002).
- 9.
Wilder Penfield, The Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975).
- 10.
John Eccles, “Natural Theological Speculations on Death and the Meaning of Life,” in Mind and Brain: The Many-Faceted Problems (New York, NY: Paragon House, 1987).
- 11.
Michael Trimble, The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 2007).
- 12.
Francis Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (New York, NY: Free Press, 2007).
- 13.
Viktor E. Frankl, Recollections (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000), p. 114.
- 14.
Karl Jaspers, Way to Wisdom (New Haven, NY: Yale University Press, 1954). [Henceforth cited as WW]
- 15.
Karl Jaspers, General Psychopathology, 2 vols. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, (1913) 1997).
- 16.
Lewis Thomas, The Youngest Science (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1984).
- 17.
Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000).
- 18.
Richard Feynman, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1989).
- 19.
Karl Jaspers, The Atom Bomb and the Future of Man (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1961).
- 20.
See Gerhard Knauss, “Karl Jaspers on Philosophy and Science,” in Karl Jaspers’s Philosophy: Expositions and Interpretations, Kurt Salamun and Gregory J. Walters, eds. (Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 2008), pp. 69–82.
- 21.
“Friede ist nicht Kampflosigkeit. Aber der Mensch kann den Kampf verwandeln aus gewaltsamen Kampf in den geistigen und in den liebenden Kampf. Der gewaltsame Kampf erlischt in der Kommunikation. Statt Überlegenheit im Sieg ist das Ergebnis die gemeinschaftliche Wahrheit. Durch solchen Kampf stellt alle Mittel der Gewalt, auch die Mittel der intellektuellen Gewaltsamkeit, die als stärkere Rationalität der stärkeren Muskelkraft entspricht, dem Partner in gleicher Weise wie sich selbst zur Verfügung und hebt damit ihre tödliche Wirkung auf” (trans. by the author). Karl Jaspers, “Wahrheit, Freiheit und Friede,” in Hoffnung und Sorge (Munich: R. Piper, 1965), p. 174.
- 22.
Rudolf A. Makkreel, Dilthey: Philosopher of the Human Studies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992).
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Ghaemi, S.N. (2012). Karl Jaspers: Philosophical Faith of a Scientist. In: Wautischer, H., Olson, A., Walters, G. (eds) Philosophical Faith and the Future of Humanity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2223-1_6
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